Members of the Journal of International Law said Tuesday that global health problems can only can harmonized by the cooperation of world organizations.
The panel discussed how the World Health Organization, World Trade Organization and United Nations can work together to deal with global epidemics such as West Nile and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome at the MSU-DCL College of Law Building.
Chicago Law School professor and symposium speaker John Blum said the world needs a broader frame of work to accommodate health problems. He said organizations are letting international laws get in the way of controlling disease.
"Health viruses and diseases don't really relate to jurisdiction," Blum said.
Blum touched on problems such as corruption within third-world countries receiving aid from the developed world. He said the aid doesn't always get to the people and ends up in the pockets of corrupted government officials.
Blum said many countries are doing a poor job reporting epidemics to the World Health Organizations, and oftentimes, outbreaks go unchecked for fear of bad press.
"Nobody wants to admit that they have a problem," he said.
Blum said the mismatched fortunes of trade laws also get tied up with health.
Focusing too specifically on certain issues also was a concern for Blum. He said the world often puts its efforts just into AIDS or SARS when there are many other diseases needing equal attention. He said he wants to see a generic and universal global system to provide low-cost drugs to other countries.
MSU-DCL Professor and symposium speaker Paul Arshagouni said sanitation structures can solve many of the world's health problems. He said there are complicated problems that need to be solved by scientists, but disease control could be vastly improved simply by measures such as keeping air and water clean.
"Your mom was right - washing your hands is the best way to control disease," Arshagouni said.
Arshagouni said that as the world deals with more global health issues, civil liberties come into play. Dealing with quarantine and isolation of infected populations can be touchy, he said, but laws need to be tough because it can mean the difference between infecting hundreds and millions of people with disease.
MSU-DCL law graduate Yunfei Zhao said the government in China is getting more efficient with handling diseases such as SARS. She said guidance from the World Health Organization about how to treat patients is working to make the global community work together.
Although he said he's primarily concerned with how to make global connections stronger, Arshagouni said things gradually are getting better.
"We need to improve international relations," Arshagouni said. "If we do that then we can have a nice, healthy, happy world."
