Brussels, 2 July 2008 - The European Medical Device Industry associations COCIR, EDMA, EHIMA, EUCOMED, EUROMCONTACT, EUROM VI and FIDE, representing 95% of the medical device industry, have come together to express their collective concerns about the proposed recast of the Medical Devices (MD) Directives.
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Researchers from the University College London described on 30 June how a special dye produces bacteria-killing chemicals when lit by a specific kind of laser light. The dye is safe to humans and capable of killing bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. With resistance to the laser-lit dye being very unlikely to develop in the bacteria, this discovery could one day help doctors tackle the growing problem of superbugs.
Ministers of health from the 53 countries of the WHO European Region today signed a new charter on health systems, committing themselves to concrete and measurable action on strengthening health systems that will allow both their own people and the international community to hold them to account. The charter stresses that strong health systems must be put in place to remove barriers such as insufficient access, costs and lack of information, to ensure coverage across the board. The charter declares: "Today, it is unacceptable that people become poor as a result of ill-health. We, the Member States, commit ourselves to: promote shared values of solidarity, equity and participation through health policies, resource allocation and other actions, ensuring due attention is paid to the needs of the poor and other vulnerable groups."
As part of the preparations for the charter, WHO conducted studies that have produced evidence of the link between the health and wealth of the population, making the case for giving serious political attention to the performance of health systems.
