Despite progress on many fronts to improve global health, the world still faces persistent challenges, from insufficient funding and capacity to the resistance by many to making needed lifestyle changes. This was the gist of the assessment made by Director General Margaret Chan of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO).

The head of the WHO asserted that the biggest challenge in public health is to persuade people to adopt healthy behavior, less costly and most effective means of meeting global health targets.

At the opening of the WHO Executive Board’s annual meeting, the WHO Director General said alcohol abuse and the marketing of unhealthy foods to children – the latter believed to account for obesity on the part of 44 million pre-school youngsters – are two of the problems that could be addressed by modifying lifestyles.

On the positive side, the WHO cited progress “in big-picture trends,” such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, vaccines and immunization, and the health of children. While the progress has sometimes been noted as fragile, threatened by factors ranging from drug resistance to uncertain funding for the future, the WHO believes that the trends are definitely positive.

Turning to the challenges, the Director General stressed that funding to sustain progress is precarious, even more so for scaling up efforts, with the shortage of doctors, nurses, and other personnel needed to do the job measured in the millions.

Lack of fundamental laboratory capacity and unsafe practices in hospitals, contribute to the spread of viral hepatitis. Blood supplies are likewise often unsafe, of poor quality, or inadequate.

In the face of all of these challenges, individuals around the world should heed the call that in order to reduce the public health concerns, changes must begin from one’s self, adopting health-seeking, rather than health-threatening, behaviors.