[PEN-L:30393] Poverty & Health Today's europe

[Hari Kumar <hari.kumar@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Poverty explosion in eastern Europe, ex-USSR: WHO.

AFP. 17 September 2002. Poverty explosion in eastern Europe, ex-USSR:
WHO.

COPENHAGEN -- Poverty levels have exploded in central and eastern Europe

and the former Soviet Union, according to a report by the World Health
Organisation published Tuesday.

It said the number of people living on less than four dollars a day
(4.15 euros) in those countries had risen from 3.3 percent to 46 percent

in about 10 years.

The European Health Report 2002, which analyses health and poverty data
and  measures taken in 10 eastern European WHO members, was the basis
for talks  between 300 delegates from 51 WHO member states in Copenhagen

on Tuesday.

The report showed "a clear relationship" between life expectancy and
gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, citing as a "striking example"
the widening gap in life expectancy between and within high- and
low-income countries.

"On average, people in the former USSR die 10 years younger than those
in western European countries," the report said, adding there was
"practically no precedent for changes of this magnitude in peacetime
[N.B.]."

The head of the WHO's regional office for Europe, Marc Danzon, noted
however that poverty "affected all countries in the European region of
870 million inhabitants, including western Europe where about 10 percent

of the population live below the poverty line."

"This report provides governments with comparative figures in order to
be able to create policies permitting them to protect the health and
well-being of the population," he told AFP.

He recalled that "one of the fundamental priorities for improving health

was to reduce inequalities linked to socio-economic factors."

The WHO conference runs until September 19.


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