Talking Points on Health as a Human Right

• National governments and the international community share responsibility for providing equal access for all to the highest attainable standard of health.

• "Health for all" requires both fighting specific diseases and sustainable health care systems prioritizing primary care.

• At the beginning of this century, it was generally assumed that treatment for AIDS in Africa was impossible. But AIDS activists and medical professionals mobilized to change this assumption. Global and national agencies invested in fighting AIDS. The battle is not yet won, but the end of AIDS is within reach.

• In 2014 the Ebola epidemic similarly poses an enormous challenge both to affected countries and to the international health care system. Stopping Ebola is both possible and necessary. But it also calls for profound changes in assumptions and institutions. For more frequent updates see AfricaFocus Facebook page.

Ebola center in Sierra Leone. National and international efforts to stop the spread of the epidemic have been insufficient to contain it. Photo credits: ŠEC/ECHO/Cyprien Fabre.