 Creation of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health*
The Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) was formally launched in March 2005 based on a decision by the 57th World Health Assembly with the mission of gathering data and evidence on social and environmental causes of health inequalities and finding possible ways to fight them. Likewise, its mandate established that all WHO programs should receive guidelines on this matter from the Commission. Its work was completed in August 2008 with the launching of its Final Recommendations Report in Geneva.
At the official launch ceremony of the Commission, held in Santiago de Chile, Dr. Lee Jong-wook, then Director-General of the World Health Organization, stated that:
 Medical science has achieved an impressive amount and we expect it to go on achieving more. But now we need some breakthroughs in what we might call social determinant science. Otherwise we could find ourselves as exposed to health hazards as our ancestors were. The challenges we now face include antimicrobial resistance, emerging disease pandemics, and the continued spread of existing epidemics. They require social solutions now just as urgently as biomedical ones.
A great deal is known around the world about the social determinants of health, but that knowledge needs to be drawn together, more clearly understood and put more systematically to use.
The Commission on Social Determinants of Health can be a powerful means of catalyzing and strengthening such activities in all countries. It will complete its initial work in 2008. That will be 30 years after the Declaration of Alma-Ata (in 1978) and 60 years after the beginning of WHO |
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These statements have strongly marked the motivation underlying this initiative: accept that medicine has its limitations and stress the need to go beyond current public health with a broad view of the social determinants of health.
*Further information on high-ranking officials who form part of the CSDH may be obtained at http://www.who.int/social_determinants/strategy/commissioners/en/index.html.
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