Taiwan is working for global good health

"Health and sanitation must reach across borders, and there must be no shortcomings in disease prevention or disaster relief." This is a universally accepted principle.

One of the council resolutions adopted by the World Medical Association (WMA) last year reiterated that the health and welfare of the people of Taiwan should no longer be excluded from the international community. In a speech last year, WMA President Dr. Kgosi Letlape said, "If avian flu is transmitted from China to Taiwan, as happened with SARS, there are still no formal channels open between the WHO and Taiwan to exchange technical data and provide help. Clearly we need to be more vocal and active as social leaders to make sure that all measures can be taken to include all the peoples of the world in preparing for health disasters."

In order to live up to the expectations of our international friends while at the same time actively integrating our medical resources here in Taiwan, we are acting on both domestic and international suggestions by initiating Taiwan International Health Action (TaiwanIHA) to coordinate international medical and sanitary cooperation with humanitarian medical aid.

TaiwanIHA strives to establish partnerships with important domestic and international medical and sanitary groups. It will support their independence and expertise, play an effective intermediary role, work for sustainable development, and build an international image of medical and health expertise focussing on Taiwan. TaiwanIHA will be the future platform for actively initiating the nation's participation in international medical and sanitary affairs, allowing better results and the future integration of our domestic medical resources.

Taiwan is willing to be a partner for global health. TaiwanIHA will be an effective medium in attempts to achieve this goal, and will allow us to establish cooperative medical partnerships with countries worldwide. As Taiwan works to gain participation in the WHO, these partnerships will naturally merge with our goal of working for global health. It is to be hoped that the establishment of TaiwanIHA will make the nation a true participating partner for global health in the future.

Hou Sheng-mou is the minister of health.

Translated by Perry Svensson