Emergency doctor says WHO has key role in health crises.

Since Dr David Nabarro was appointed Representative of the Director-General for Health Action in Crises in July 2003, the work of his team has hardly been out of the headlines and their web site http://www.who.int/hac/en/ has become an important source of comprehensive health information on crisis-hit regions. In the last 18 months, WHO has responded to more than 12 major health crises across the world from natural and man-made disasters to armed conflict and barely functioning health systems in regions with a very high burden of HIV/AIDS. WHO’s Health Action in Crises helps governments reconstruct vital health services after a war or conflict, for example in Afghanistan, Iraq and Liberia; it provides basic health care to people who are being displaced by conflict, for example in Darfur, Sudan, and helps governments provide emergency health care, monitor disease and rebuild broken health systems in regions struck by natural disasters, most recently in tsunami-hit parts of south-east Asia.