WHO Head Expects Anti-Obesity Plan to Be Adopted

The World Health Organization expects its blueprint for tackling obesity to be adopted formally next week, the head of the U.N. agency said Friday.

The World Health Organization expects its blueprint for tackling obesity to be adopted formally next week, the head of the U.N. agency said Friday. Lee Jong-Wook, WHO director-general, said that its draft Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health enjoyed broad support, including among large sugar-producing and consuming countries. The WHO’s 192 member states open their week-long assembly on Monday and the debate over diet is set for Wednesday. But diplomats said some sugar-producers, including Brazil, Cuba and Mauritius, were still lobbying against the draft, while the United States appeared ready to “live with it.” Consumer activists accused the WHO of “caving in” to the United States and the junk-food industry after the draft plan, negotiated over two years, was diluted earlier this year. It still recommends that people limit intake of fats, sugar and salt — blamed for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers — but no longer lays down specific targets, as recommended by some nutrition experts. Such chronic diseases account for nearly 60 percent of 56.5 million deaths a year deemed preventable, according to the WHO. “The essentials of the strategy are to eat more vegetables, fruit and low-fat food, reduce intake of sugar and salt and do more exercise. I really see no problem with the strategy,” Lee told a news conference. “There is a broad consensus on our current draft. I see no big hiccup.” But some diplomats said there was still strong opposition among some sugar producers. “It could easily blow up,” said one. SARS, AVIAN FLU AND AIDS This year’s outbreak of SARS in China and of avian flu across Asia, and a drive to offer affordable drugs to millions of HIV/AIDS sufferers are also on the assembly’s agenda. WHO’s chances of eradicating polio worldwide by the end of the year will be reassessed in the face of epidemics of the crippling disease in Africa after two Nigerian states halted vaccination programs. “Many health challenges must be overcome, including detecting emerging, new diseases, combating those which have been with us for decades, and the risks linked to unhealthy diets,” said Lee, a South Korean doctor and WHO veteran elected to the top post last year. “We have an opportunity now to change history by aiming to stop 8,000 people dying every single day of HIV/AIDS,” he said. An estimated 34-46 million people are infected with HIV, according to the WHO, which has launched an ambitious initiative to bring affordable, life-extending drugs to three million HIV carriers in the poorest countries by the end of 2005. Lee noted the WHO’s anti-smoking pact, the world’s first public health treaty adopted last year, had let to changes. “If one can stop smoking in Irish pubs, anything is possible.” (Source: WHO, Reuters Health News, May 2004)