Letter: Global health for all - The Guardian 17th May 2008

Thirty years ago governments signed the declaration of Alma Ata, a groundbreaking set of commitments that aimed to provide health for all by the year 2000. Governments did not meet these commitments. However, we believe the spirit of Alma Ata should be underlying the millennium development goals, signed in 2000, three of which aim to tackle child and maternal mortality, and HIV and Aids. We are now midway on the road to those goals. Alma Ata is still as important today as it was in 1978 and there is still much to be done in achieving health for all. We still live in a world where every day 4,000 children die of diarrhoea, 1,400 women die in childbirth and pregnancy, and 6,000 people die of HIV and Aids-related illnesses - all due to lack of access to decent-quality healthcare.

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