Bringing together students from around the world to learn about the problems of development and how the World Bank approaches them, the World Bank’s External Affairs Department sponsored the Global Issues Seminar Series for the third time in the fall of 2006. In this session on October 4, 2006, students from the Netherlands, Uganda, Ghana, Egypt, and the United States met via videoconference to hear presentations on diseases without borders. The panel was chaired by Vinay Bhargava, Director for External Affairs at the Bank.
The first presentation from Jayshree Balachandar, Senior Human Development Specialist for the World Bank, gave an overview of infectious diseases. She discussed the reasons why globalization has encouraged the spread of communicable disease, including international travel and microbial adaptation. Balachandar then outlined the international response to global diseases, both through sustained campaigns and in outbreak response plans. Balachandar concluded this half of her presentation with the role of the Bank in fighting infectious diseases through health financing and projects.
Xavier Leus, World Health Organization representative to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, commented on national responses to infectious diseases, and how those responses gave rise to global port and air travel regulations. He also discussed regional health regulations that address problems such as African river blindness, and the importance of supporting programs that prevent disease spread at wider levels.
Participants asked the panelists about capacity building and brain-drain, the realism of the Millennium Development Goals regarding disease, and the reasons for the breakdown of public health facilities. Other questions included the use of DDT to fight malaria, public-private partnerships, and global governance.
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