The Russian Federation
Positions for the World Health Organization
I. Addressing the Challenges to Accessing Vaccines
The Russian Federation notes the ever-increasing role of vaccines in keeping the ever-expanding population healthy and thus calls upon the United Nations and its contingencies to aid in the availability and implementation of vaccines worldwide. As the World Health Organization, it is our duty to protect, guard, and improve the health of every citizen and thus the prevention of preventable diseases should be an important problem to solve. With many national vaccination programs lacking in resources, funding, and/or staffing it is the World Health Organization’s responsibility to set guidelines to ensure those regions (which are many times the most affected by disease) steadily improves to international standards. As a nation, the Russian Federation is quite thorough in its vaccinations with its coverage of at-risk age cohorts at no less than 95–98%¹ and takes the health of their citizens very seriously. Due tot this, Russia supports guidelines aimed at improving vaccine implementation such as the 2002 guideline set during the United Nations General Assembly twenty-seventh special session on children which sets a goal to ensure full immunization of children under one year of age, at 90% coverage nationally, with at least 80% coverage in every district or equivalent administrative unit². This focuses primarily on local efforts on the state and regional governance to aid its people’s vaccinations. However, a major problem associated with this is the lack of medically-trained staff in certain areas. Internationally, it is expected that there will be a shortage of 12.9 million healthcare workers by 2035 according to a WHO report⁴ with it also being reported that 40% of nurses in developing countries will leave health employment in the next decade⁴. This is due to a combination of reasons including a lack of resources and lack of incentive to stay in their current occupations. Additionally, not only is the output of medical professionals leaving significant, the input is also at an increased disadvantage for underdeveloped countries. For example in sub-Saharan Africa, out of 47 countries 11 have no medical school while 24 only have one³. This is essential as the training of medical personnel well-versed in that specific region’s customs and culture is crucial for effective medical practice. Due to this, the Russian Federation finds it increasingly obvious that guidelines have to be implemented to improve incentives given to medical professions while also helping to establish formal training for future healthcare personnel worldwide. With this, we urge member nations to not underestimate the importance of training and retaining medical personnel well-versed in the region that they will be serving’s culture, customs, and community needs.
However, a lack of medical resources is not the only issue facing vaccine implementation. In the past few years, there has been an increase in “vaccine hesitancy” where due to held beliefs and/or poor past experiences, those who can receive vaccinations choose not to. The United Nations and World Health Organization has responded to this by creating the SAGE (Strategic Advisory Group of Experts) Vaccine Hesitancy Working Group which deals specifically with vaccine hesitancy and the strategies and educational plans to most effectively aid with vaccine implementation. On an individual member nation level, there are varying levels of strictness on mandatory vaccinations. For example, Slovenia has a mandatory vaccination program which allows only for medical exemption and not religious or moral concerns⁵. The Russian Federation also adopts a strict policy ensuring that those who are not vaccinated will not be able to travel to countries requiring vaccinations and will not be able to hold certain occupation⁶. Thus, the Russian Federation takes a stance of the health of its people first and recognizes the barriers facing the goal of 100% vaccination coverage. Better education and training medical personnel to be more communicable about vaccines could possibly help to dispel the stigma or misconceptions that certain individuals have about vaccinations.
The Russian Federation calls upon the World Health Organization to create more comprehensive guidelines aiming to tackle vaccinations at the local level. Needing a sustainable plan for public health, it is imperative that vaccines can be implemented and applied at a high international standard.
II. Increased Prevalence of Non-Communicable Diseases in Developing Member States
In a world of rapid progression, health infrastructures, especially in underdeveloped regions, is not catching up towards the quickly-changing modern lifestyle. Processed foods, alcohol, and tobacco are just some examples of the products causing non-communicable diseases, untransmissible diseases that are caused by genetics, environment, and/or behavior that usually are long-term. Additionally, due to the high prevalence of these diseases, it has become not only a health problem, but an economic one. According to a study published by the World Economic Forum and Harvard School of Public Health⁷, these chronic diseases will cost more than 20 trillion USD for the next 20 years, essentially adding a major economic burden onto countries lacking the educational and health resources to combat this issue. The Russian Federation itself has had major issues with these non-communicable diseases. According to the 2009 Global Adult Tobacco Survey, 60.2% of Russian men and 21.7% of women are smokers and it is estimated 350 to 500 thousand people die from tobacco-related causes¹. Additionally, it is estimated that 20% of deaths among men and 6% of deaths among women involve the abuse or harmful use of alcohol¹. The fact that these statistics are for a developed nation such as the Russian Federation, it is jarring to view what struggles developing nations have to combat this problem. This is why the Russian Federation calls the World Health Organization into action to create necessary guidelines to better the general health of its member nations, especially those with underdeveloped resources to do so.
Russia fully supports international collaboration between nations on previous plans and solutions that have worked before. Additionally, the Russian Federation encourages government-lead collaboration between the public and private sector to ensure that the health of the people is the first priority. Together, the Russian Federation believes highlighting this important issue will help educate the people on the severity of the issue and drastically improve the health of the general populace globally.
¹ ”Country Cooperation Strategy for the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION and the MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION,” World Health Organization
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/179823/ccs_rus_en.PDF?sequence=1 (accessed October 25, 2018)
² United Nations General Assembly resolution S-27/2, Annex.
³ ”A Universal Truth: No Health Without a Workforce,” World Health Organization
⁴ “Global health workforce shortage to reach 12.9 million in coming decades” World Health Organization
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2013/health-workforce-shortage/en/ (accessed October 25, 2018)
⁵ “Mandatory vaccinations: The international landscape,” Canadian Medical Association Journal
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3216445/ (accessed October 25, 2018)
⁶ “FEDERAL LAW OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION of September 17, 1998 No. 157-FZ”
http://cis-legislation.com/document.fwx?rgn=1776 (accessed October 25, 2018)
⁷ “The Global Burden of Non-Communicable Diseases” Harvard School of Public Health, World Economic Forum.
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Harvard_HE_GlobalEconomicBurdenNonCommunicableDiseases_2011.pdf
(accessed October 25, 2018)