Climate Change and Tuberculosis on Display at World Health Organization Meeting

World Health Organization leaders along with Public Health Director James Gillan and Governor Eddie Calvo presided over the opening ceremony of the 66th Session of the WHO Regional Committee.
Gov. Calvo talks about the health issues that arise from climate change which forces more and more migrants to Guam. This puts Guam in a predicament as it wants to welcome all people but it struggles to provide healthcare to everyone. One of the issues Calvo focused on was tuberculosis.

"We have the potential to become a petri dish as migrants, tourists and international travelers touch ground on here as a real life example I know that the who is trying to eradicate tuberculosis. While immunization is available here on Guam and many other communities, this treatment is not available to everyone within this western pacific region," said Calvo

Calvo says that Guam is the educational Hub of the region and every year, there are at least one or two cases of TB every year. While Guam is fortunate to prevent the spread of TB, The issue becomes the rising price of the vaccination for TB.

"We want to make some comments about how the United States Pharmaceutical industry through licensing and patent agreements has actually jacked up the price of resistant strain medicine; to the point where it's almost unaffordable. We had one company, just recently, purchase the manufacturing right for a drug we used to pay 500-dollars for a 30-day supply for multiple resistant strains of Tuberculosis, it now cost 10-thousand, 600 dollars," said Gillan

Gillan says the rising costs of medication are one of the things WHO health officials will discuss during the week long session. Tomorrow the group will discuss viral hepatitis and tuberculosis. On Wednesday, the group will discuss one of Guam's main issues, Domestic Violence.
Guam - It's been 43 years since the last time the World Health Organization's Regional Committee for the Western Pacific was on Guam. Today, at the opening ceremonies, delegates from 37 nations, including Guam, were on hand to discuss a number of things including Guam's health issues.

source: http://www.pacificnewscenter.com/