Having served for the past year as President of the 61st World Health Assembly (WHA), Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, yesterday demitted the prestigious office.His stint came to an end at the commencement of the 62nd Assembly being held in Geneva, Switzerland.In his address to the gathering the Minister pointed out, “We are not worse off one year later…”He pointed to the fact though that countries are never without crises even as he recounted that around this time last year that there were major disasters in Myanmar and China, adding that countries are better prepared to deal with multiple crises.“We worked together and we overcame the calamity of those disasters. As we meet today, Type A influenza H1N1 is threatening…and I believe our response to it has shown that we learnt from our confrontation with SARS.”And although there are many old nemeses and new health challenges the Minister noted that there are also new opportunities to attain Health for All.He said,Alcides Escobar Venezuela Jersey, “As we embark on our 62nd World Health Assembly, we are also on the last lap in the stadium towards the MDGs.”However,Cheap NHL Jerseys, many are pessimistic and fearful that too many countries are on the brink of failure to attain the MDGS, Minister Ramsammy said.He also said that it is his belief that failure to attain the MDGs should not be inevitable as the collective efforts of countries have ensured that “we are today better poised than ever before to attain the MDGs.”In his speech, too, the Minister alluded to his call for a minimum life expectancy of 70 for all countries in the Americas and in the world by 2025, which is premised on people living longer and for the lowering of the mortality rate.He said that his call for longer life expectancies and greater freedom from disability must, however, be seen in the context of a surrogate call for a more equitable way to train health care professionals.He emphasised the call for health equity, health financing and health system strengthening stressing that “For us to derive maximum benefit from the financial and HR investment,Cheap Authentic Jerseys, we must strengthen health systems. Health Systems Strengthening must not be another set of buzzwords. Health system strengthening must be bread and butter issues for Ministers of Health and for the WHO.”Minister Ramsammy further underscored that for developing countries, a continuing and worsening HR crisis looms. He acknowledged that all countries deliver health care with the constraints of HR shortages,Anders Nilsson Jersey, within a milieu of a bludgeoning demand for quality health care and amidst new, re-emerging, rapid-spreading and deadlier epidemics to deal with.And this, he said, is done with the realization of global warming and climate change that wreaks more disasters on populations that are already overwhelmed with health problems.According to him, ensuring enough health care professionals are available, addressing the supply side, ensuring the proper mix and distribution for this supply are the real challenges that face Ministers of Health and Health Ministries around the world.As a result Minister Ramsammy made reference to former President of Guyana, Cheddi Jagan, who had proposed in the early 1990s the New Global Human Order.“We see this in operation today in GF,Cheap Jerseys Wholesale, GAVI,nhl jerseys outlet, PEPFAR, UNITAID, etc. Without these initiatives we could never achieve Health for All and would be worst off today. We must all work to advocate for more reliable support to the GF and all of these initiatives. I believe all countries should become a part of UNITAID,” said the minister.He did not fail to point to the fact that without funding from donor agencies there is no way to deal with illnesses such as HIV, TB and Malaria.