The optimism born of the world's first successful disease-eradication campaign invigorated the international health community, if only briefly. Global consensus regarding the right to primary health care for all was reached at the International Conference on Primary Health Care in Alma-Ata (in what is now Kazakhstan) in 1978. However, the declaration of this collective vision was not followed by substantial funding, nor did the apparent consensus reflect universal commitment to the right to health care. Moreover, as is too often the case, success paradoxically weakened commitment. . | Chapter 002. Global Issues in Medicine Part 2 The optimism born of the world s first successful disease-eradication campaign invigorated the international health community if only briefly. Global consensus regarding the right to primary health care for all was reached at the International Conference on Primary Health Care in Alma-Ata in what is now Kazakhstan in 1978. However the declaration of this collective vision was not followed by substantial funding nor did the apparent consensus reflect universal commitment to the right to health care. Moreover as is too often the case success paradoxically weakened commitment. Basic-science research that might lead to effective vaccines and therapies for TB and malaria faltered in the latter decades of the twentieth century after these diseases were brought under control in the affluent countries where most such research is conducted. . Surgeon General William H. Stewart declared in the late 1960s that it was time to close the book on infectious diseases and attention was turned to the main health problems of countries that had already undergone an epidemiological transition that is the focus shifted from premature deaths due to infectious diseases toward deaths from complications of chronic noncommunicable diseases including malignancies and complications of heart disease. In 1982 the visionary leader of UNICEF James P. Grant frustrated by the lack of action around the Health for All initiative announced in Alma-Ata launched a child survival revolution focused on four inexpensive interventions collectively known by the acronym GOBI growth monitoring oral rehydration breast-feeding and immunizations for TB diphtheria whooping cough tetanus polio and measles. GOBI which was later expanded to GOBI-FFF to include emale education food and family planning was controversial from the start but Grant s advocacy led to enormous improvements in the health of poor children worldwide. The Expanded Programme on Immunization was .
