On October 22–25 the conference «Healthy Cities» was held under the auspices of the World Health Organization in Athens. In 2014, we celebrated 25 years of the healthy cities movement in the world. The conference was attended by representatives of various specialities from more than 56 countries, WHO representatives, health-sector experts, specialists in the field of health care management, sociologists, members of the networks, cities officials shared their good practices and experience.
The Russian Federation was represented by the doctors from St. Petersburg, Izhevsk, Cheboksary and other cities. At the conference opening ceremony the chairman of the Russian Association “Healthy cities, districts and villages”, member of the Government Commission on Health Protection Oleg Kuvshinnikov greeted the participants. He reiterated that the Russian association includes more than 30 cities with more than 12 million people. The Association “Healthy cities, districts and villages” mission is to unite the efforts of cities participating in the project of the World Health Organization's “Healthy Cities” and it aims at improving life and health quality to achieve physical, mental and social well-being of urban districts and rural settlements.
О. П. Ротарь
Plenary and sub-plenary sessions, panel discussions, parallel sessions, where participants actively discussed the current issues of the results and jointly seek answers to the outstanding questions were held for 4 days of the Conference.
From St. Petersburg the following reports were presented:
- “About the formation of preventive health care system of St. Petersburg” by the deputy chairman of the Health Committee of the Government of Saint-Petersburg Tatiana Zasukhina;
- “Sex differences in the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in the population of St. Petersburg” by Head of the Research Laboratory of Epidemiology of hypertension of Federal Almazov Medical Research Centre Oksana Rotar.
October 24 at the Plenary session Professor Stephanos Geroulanos presented a lecture on the history of Greek medicine from Apollo as the first patron of medicine and from Hippocrates to Asclepius who had an enormous influence on the development of medicine. He also mentioned a lot of medical terms that we use so far, and manipulation in traumatology (reduction of dislocation) and the use of herbal medicine (willow bark as an anti-inflammatory agent, coumarin fruits as anticoagulants). Particular attention was paid to the Hippocratic Oath which is necessary to remember at the era of research progress and new technologies enthusiasm.
Following the conference in Athens the “Declaration for Healthy Cities” will be adopted; it is based on the provisions of the European concept of “Health 2020”. The document provides an overview of the basic plans: VI phase of the WHO project “Healthy Cities” and national networks in Europe which will be implemented from 2014 to 2019.
Next year conference will be held in the city of Kuypolo (Finland).
More information on the conference website.
