Thirtieth World Health Assembly - Message to the Assembly.

To the President and Members of the Thirtieth World Health Assembly, Geneva, Switzerland

I want to commend the outstanding work of the World Health Organization, under the leadership of Dr. Halfdan Mahler. Public health has been a particular concern of mine for many years. My mother is a nurse, and my wife is deeply committed to improving health services.

During my lifetime, science and technology have brought under control a number of diseases that once weakened, crippled, or killed people throughout my home state of Georgia.

But many parasitic and infectious diseases remain, even in a country such as ours. In some areas of the southeastern United States, more than 25 percent of the children suffer from intestinal parasites.

The situation is far worse, of course, in countries which have not yet reached the technical and scientific levels made possible by our abundance of natural resources. In the developing countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, some two billion people live with the constant threat of malaria, schistosomiasis, leprosy, measles, yaws, and other terrible diseases.

Malnutrition and high population growth rates complicate the problems of health care--and the chief sufferers are children.

In Upper Volta, to pick one tragic example from the many, mortality among children under five is close to 50 percent.

These questions affect us all, since in. creased international travel hastens the spread of disease throughout the world. But a greater degree of cooperation between scholars and scientists of all nations can slow that spread, and even wipe out certain diseases altogether. Smallpox, for example, is almost eradicated except for Somalia.

In my speech to the United Nations General Assembly several weeks ago, I emphasized our commitment to basic human rights. These include the right of every human being to be free from unnecessary disease.

To work toward that right, we will offer to share our medical know-how with all nations, regardless of politics or ideology. We will work together to control disease, improve nutrition, and raise the quality and productivity of life throughout the world.

The United States is ready to help develop a truly international program to identify and report epidemic and endemic diseases. We will work with the World Health Organization, as well as with individual countries, in a global effort to give early warning of impending disease outbreaks.

The gap in health and productivity between developed and developing nations is bound to increase political and social instability in the world.

In some measure this gap is due to unequal distribution and consumption of food, energy, and water. We know the economic and social consequences to other nations of our own waste of nonrenewable energy resources, and we are determined to correct the situation.

We also know that health and economic development are closely linked. The child with malaria often misses school. The anemic worker, with a parasitic infection, is less productive than he should be. We need to pursue programs which break this cycle of poverty, disease and hunger.

When I return to the United States, I will strive personally to find ways in which our government and the private sector can better cooperate with other nations on health, population and nutritional needs.

The United States supports the World Health Organization's expanded immunization program. My country has pioneered in the development of polio and measles vaccine, and will continue to support vaccine research.

My country also supports the bold and innovative new program of research in tropical diseases being developed in cooperation with the World Health Organization. These efforts will bring us closer to our goal: a world in which all people can live free from fear of crippling and debilitating diseases.

The preamble of the World Health Organization's constitution says, "The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being."

The United States will do its best to bring that right within the reach of all.

JIMMY CARTER