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This year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) saw several “firsts” in its more than seven decades history.  The 71^st was a landmark WHA, showcasing a major shift in how the World Health Organization (WHO) engages with civil society and how it approaches global health: namely seeking to advance individual systems of care (i.e., primary health, childbirth, surgery, and diagnostics) instead of just monitoring individual diseases. Here are some key takeaways!

Dozens of men crammed into a small, dark, window-less prison cell, peering out from the barred doorway, pleading looks on their sweaty faces; this is the image I cannot forget from a week-long research trip to Haiti in 2016. Many prisons around the world are essentially factories for production of TB, including drug-resistant TB, now the single biggest infectious disease killer in the world. Unless the world tackles prison conditions, ending this disease will remain just a distant dream.

Where infectious diseases were once the scourge of humanity, non-communicable diseases now pose the greatest threat to health and well-being and the greatest disease burden on national economies, particularly in developing countries. Without immediate action that is coordinated, consolidated, and targeted to address the problem, it is already obvious that Sustainable Development Goal (SDG3) of “health for all, at all ages” — to be attained in a mere 12 years — will remain little more than a pipe dream.

The congregation of health leaders at the 2018 World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland, this week, is an opportune time to shine a light on the problem of stunting in Africa and for African governments to do more to reverse the negative trends on the continent. While Africa’s land is fertile and productive, children here experience the highest rates of stunting. The contradiction can be explained by the fact that good nutrition is dependent on good agricultural practices.

The words “global health crisis” evoke the image of aid workers rushing to prevent the spread of a pandemic disease or virus such as Ebola or Zika — a widespread emergency. Malnutrition is a global health crisis of epic proportions that is linked to 45 percent of deaths among children under five years of age in low- and middle-income countries. Lack of appropriate nutrition extends the cycle of poverty; exposes the world’s youngest children to more death and disease; and inhibits physical, cognitive, and emotional development.

As Ministers of Finance gather at the World Bank Spring meetings, as donors are evaluating their continuing support for health, and as multilaterals are changing their guiding policies to how they will reduce country support, it’s the time to ask — how will we finance UHC? How are we building and financing sustainable health systems that can address the vast existing inequities in accessing health services?

The last case of wild polio in the United States was recorded in 1979. Latin America and the Caribbean celebrated its victory over the lethal childhood infection more than 26 years ago, making the Americas the first region of the world to eliminate the disease. Retired director of PAHO, Sir George Alleyne, describes the story of how the region became the first to defeat the once lethal childhood infection and how it has sustained its infectious disease control programs since as one filled with good fortune, intrigue, political will, the value of effective public policy and planning, and value of stakeholder buy-in.

Each year, the timing of World Immunisation Week coincides with ANZAC Day, when we acknowledge the achievements and sacrifices of our military personnel. In 2018, two 100th anniversaries remind us that infectious diseases have taken, and still take, a greater toll than the loss of life in warfare.

As the flu season begins in Australia, several media reports have reminded us that the flu pandemic of 1918-1919 led to more deaths than military and civilian casualties in the war (estimated at 20 million) in order to strengthen the argument for us to have our flu vaccinations.

It is also a time to remember the millions of preventable deaths that occur today due to poor health and nutrition, and to promote the actions to prevent these deaths.