Health and Medical Care

August 2000

Overview of Infectious Diseases

Newly-emerging infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, and re-emerging infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, once expected to be eradicated, are problems that cannot be solved by individual countries on their own but must be dealt with by the international community as a whole because of their cross-border implications and the huge financial burden involved in the fight against them. They not only threaten the lives and health of individuals but also pose serious impediment to the social and economic development in developing countries.

Global figures for:

1. HIV/AIDS
	(1) People living with HIV as of end of 1999	34.3 million
	(2) People newly infected with HIV in 1999	5.4 million
	(3) AIDS deaths in 1999	2.8 million
2. Tuberculosis
	(1) People newly infected with TB in 1998	8 million
	(2) TB deaths each year	2 million
3. Malaria
	(1) Clinical cases of malaria occurring each year	Almost 300 million
	(2) Malaria deaths each year	1 million

Fight against Infectious Diseases with Partnerships World-wide

International organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS*) have striven to push forward international co-operation to fight such infectious diseases. The issue has been taken up in recent G8 summit meetings, and in January 2000, the UN Security Council discussed HIV/AIDS, focusing on the situation in Africa. There is clearly a growing global consensus that controlling, rolling back and eradicating infectious diseases is now a matter of the highest priority on the global development agenda requiring urgent and serious attention by all stakeholders.

* UNAIDS was established by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN in July 1994, and started its activities in January 1996 to implement comprehensive and effective programmes against HIV/AIDS. UNAIDS is co-sponsored by;

(1) UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)

(2) UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)

(3) UNFPA (United Nations Fund for Population Activities)

(4) UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund)

(5) WHO (World Health Organization)

(6) UNDCP (United Nations International Drug Control Programme)

(7) World Bank

Japan as a Donor

Japan has enhanced its co-operation with international organizations and donor countries, making the most of its experience and knowledge with a view to contributing to better health care in developing countries; Japan's contribution to WHO is the second largest among its members. In February 1999, Dr. Shigeru Omi assumed the post of Regional Director for the Western Pacific of WHO. Under his leadership, WHO has been working to further assist the region for improved health care.

Japan is the largest donor to the polio eradication programme in the Western Pacific Region, and it is expected that WHO will officially declare the eradication of polio in the Region before the end of the year 2000. Japan is also engaged in efforts against parasitic diseases, including malaria and schistosomiasis, which are serious health issues in tropical regions. As a part of such efforts, Japan plans to establish outreaching bases in Asia and in Africa for research and human resources development, with a view to promoting information exchange and human resources development.

Japan considers public health as one of the prioritized issues in its Medium-Term Policy on Official Development Assistance (ODA); 21% of grant assistance and 15% of technical co-operation were extended in the field of health care in FY1998. Furthermore, Japan has implemented the "Global Issues Initiative (GII) on Population and AIDS" by committing the allocation of US$3 billion from its ODA budget during the 7-year period starting from FY1994 to FY2000.

At the Kyushu-Okinawa G8 Summit, the issue of infectious and parasitic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria was taken up as one of the major issues of development. On this occasion, Japan, as the presidency of the Summit and a leading donor as well, announced "Okinawa ID (infectious diseases) Initiative" for enhancing its assistance in this area with the target of allocating a total of US$3 billion over the next 5 years.

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