Rapid Responses to:

EDITORIALS: Gro Harlem Brundtland World summit on sustainable development BMJ 2002; 325: 399-400 [Full text]

Rapid Responses: Submit a response to this article

Rapid Responses published:

Acute respiratory infection is the main killer

Friedrich Flachsbart   (24 August 2002)

Education is the clue

Ricardo Drut   (24 August 2002)

Educate, educate, educate

Richard L. Newell   (25 August 2002)

Acute respiratory infection is the main killer 24 August 2002
Friedrich Flachsbart, General medicine 37085 Göttingen Send response to journal: Re: Acute respiratory infection is the main killer	Dear Mrs. Brundtland, 2 million deaths from acute respiratory infections (ARI) are also preventable. The main killer is still streptococcus. Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) is the hidden companion of acute respiratory infections. Intensive scientific work has to be pushed by the WHO to prevent acute respiratory infections and acute rheumatic fever. If You do not talk about it, it is not there: It remains the hidden killer of the poor. Sincerily Yours Friedrich Flachsbart
Education is the clue 24 August 2002
Ricardo Drut, Professor of Pathology Hospital de Nińos. 1900. La Plata. Argentina Send response to journal: Re: Education is the clue	Dear Mrs. Brundtland, I agree with all your statements but let me cast some doubt if you intend to reach important goals without extensive and intensive education of the people of the included countries as well as, and as important as, instructing the local burocracies about the know how on those matters. Ministry of Health teams from different countries are not alike, indeeed thay are quite different and their background not always, probably rarely, in full capacity to drive their budgets in proper direction. They indeed need adequate counselling and close surveillance. Their incapacity is easy to see. They even cannot define adequate strategies to decide which are the first two or three priorities. Education is the clue. Prof. Dr. Ricardo Drut.
Educate, educate, educate 25 August 2002
Richard L. Newell, Ship's Doctor In the Mediterranean Send response to journal: Re: Educate, educate, educate	Sir, The conference has a massive theme and, because of the scale of its deliberations and diversity of participants, it is unlikely to produce many concrete plans of action. This does not mean it will necessarily be a waste of time, for even those who mouth pious platitudes can later be held to account. However, Brundtland's article needs a challenge: poverty and health are undoubtedly very important, but if education is not first addressed, the illnesses of poverty will simply recur. The focus of remedial action should be on a clean water supply together with education in public and personal health, food and water management to avoid pollution of supplies, and family planning and safe sex (which is generally only acceptable to those who have been given education and seen the benefits of a small well fed and educated family). Formal education of the kind that we wealthy members of the developed world enjoy can follow later. To talk about the ravages of HIV/AIDS in a medical context is surely to put the wrong emphasis on what is essentially a disease of social behaviour. Education will eradicate it far more effectively than any number of expensive medicines. This does not mean that medicines have no place - they must be made available for those who have already acquired the virus, but that will not solve the problem of the pandemic. In short, educate, educate, educate. Richard Newell