World Health Organization
World Health Organization
Roy Zhang, Director
Dear Delegates,
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the World Health Organization at the 59th session of Harvard Model United Nations. To those of you who jumped on the opportunity to represent your delegation in the WHO, I can only assume that you share as much of a passion for healthcare and medicine as I do. I know we will thoroughly enjoy the time to come spent in the company of interesting people all while trying to solve a few worldwide issues. To those of you who were coerced in to the WHO, I can only promise you that you will leave HMUN with a newfound love for global health.
At Harvard, I am a junior concentrating in Molecular and Cellular Biology with a secondary in Economics. I am intimately involved with MUN as well as a host of other activities on campus. If you have any questions now, or at the conference, feel free to ask. I look forward to meeting and working with all of you.
All the best,
Roy Zhang
_
Topic Area Summaries
Topic Area A: Combatting Drug Resistance
When Alexander Fleming walked into his laboratory on the morning of 28 September 1928, he could not have imagined that he was about to make a discovery that would revolutionize medicine around the world. The isolation of penicillin paved the way for the creation of an arsenal of antibiotics that would cure many of the most common bacterial diseases that had plagued humanity for millennia. As medicine accelerated through the technological advances of the late 20th and early 21stcenturies, more pharmacological substances have been developed that have enabled doctors to effectively treat a host of microbial and viral infections.
However, bacteria and viruses that have survived for far longer than humans have walked the earth have prevailed by adapting to their environment. To these microscopic pathogens, an antibiotic is simply another environmental stressor to adapt to. When pharmacological agents are used inappropriately, pathogens quickly develop resistance. Alexander Fleming predicted the development of drug resistant infections and widely cautioned against unnecessary or insufficient antibiotic use, but decades after the global public has ignored his warnings, we now must confront the ramifications.
Drug resistance poses already significant issues in the modern hospitals of the developed world, but these issues are exacerbated many times in the developing world. Individuals living in the developing world must confront not only the decreased quality of life that complicates health care, but also the economic adversity that reduces their access to advanced drugs for which pathogens have not developed resistance.
As a committee, we must cooperate to find ways of slowing the development of drug resistance, while also considering how the people of the developing world can be treated for drug resistant infections. This issue will undoubtedly be solved through a combination of scientific development and social change. Consider your country’s experience with drug resistant infections, weigh your medical culture, and prepare to help found the way to our global medical future.
Topic Area B: Epidemic and Pandemic Response Procedure
Our patient zero checks out and leaves his hotel in the Hong Kong Financial District following a weekend spent finalizing a major business deal. Satisfied, he decides to take a walk through a local market where live poultry are in cages for sale as he has done every day to unwind from the stresses of work. Stopping in front of one such cage, he checks his watch and decides to head to the airport for his evening flight back to New York. Arriving at the airport, he joins a crowd in front of the departures board to check on the status of his flight. He sneezes, but thinks nothing of it. Within a week, thousands of cases of a previously unknown, highly virulent form of influenza have been reported around the world.
When an epidemic or pandemic strikes, little evidence can be found before the infection has already widely spread. A sudden increase in infection incidence rates can catch hospitals off guard and unready. Furthermore, actions must be taken to prevent the spread of the infection to more of the susceptible population. At the same time, information must be delivered to the public on how they can protect themselves without causing excess alarm and panic. This coordinated dance of procedures must be precisely executed at a time when stress is greatest for healthcare agencies of all levels. To ensure that the public health and wellbeing is protected, plans of response to epidemics and pandemics must be developed ahead of time.
When developing such a plan, it is important to consider how the spread of infection will be monitored, how infection can be contained, how the infection could be treated, and what other response methods should be necessary. This topic will force you to create a response plan for general and specific diseases. While protecting the health of the public is of utmost importance, you will also need to consider social, cultural, and economic considerations in the planning of your infection response.