GENEVA - The World Health Assembly (WHA), the supreme decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), wrapped-up its fifty-ninth session on Saturday. More than 2200 people from WHO's 192 Member States, nongovernmental organizations and other observers attended the meeting which took place May 22-27.
The Fifty-ninth WHA opened in a somber mood following the sudden death of WHO Director-General Dr Lee Jong-wook. Dr Lee, 61, had been in his post since July 2003.
The President of the 59th World Health Assembly was Professor Paulo Ivo Garrido, the Minister of Health of Mozambique.
Delegates from 187 Member States, and more than 500 delegates representing 75 non-governmental organizations took part in discussions on several issues and resolutions over the six-day Assembly.
One of the main issues which the Assembly discussed was intellectual property and innovation.
In order to address the need for people in developing countries to access necessary medicines, vaccines and diagnostics, the Assembly agreed to an intergovernmental working group open to all interested Member States to draw up a global strategy and plan of action in order to provide a medium-term framework based on the recommendations of the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health.
The working group shall report to the Sixtieth World Health Assembly on the progress made, giving particular attention to needs-driven research and other potential areas for early implementation action. The working group shall submit the final global strategy and plan of action to the Sixty-first World Health Assembly.
