3.4 Environmental health

3.3.2 AIDS

In 1990, WHO organized the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific in Canberra, Australia. The congress served as a wake-up call for countries to curb the spread of AIDS. Encouraged by this conference, Choi Kang-won at Seoul National University College of Medicine and Kim Jun-myung at Yonsei University organized the Korean Alliance to Defeat AIDS (28).

3.3.3 Cancer

The WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific held meetings in Australia in 1978 and in China in 1979 on international cooperation to fight cancer. The meetings were a platform for WHO to share cancer management techniques and to gather information on the status of cancer in the countries within the Region.

To reinforce the Republic of Korea’s efforts to fight cancer, WHO provided support for the pathological diagnosis of cancer, given its importance in cancer treatment and prevention. Moreover, from 1980 to 1982 WHO supported a training programme for tumour cell biology and a cancer control project, providing equipment, human resources and financing (29).

aids d efeat lliance to a © Korean

Q The international congress on aids in asia and the pacific organized by Who encouraged the establishment in 1993 of the Korean alliance to defeat aids.

In response to the United Nations designation of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade from 1981 to 1990, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution recommending that Member States strengthen their national health agencies and involve them in planning and implementing programmes for the drinking water and sanitation decade (30).

During this same period, environmental pollution became a significant problem in the Republic of Korea due to the country’s rapid economic growth and industrial development. As such, WHO and the Republic of Korea strengthened their cooperation in the environmental health sector, and in 1977, a WHO adviser on air pollution and quality control was assigned to work in MOHSA.

In 1980, with the establishment of the National Environmental Agency, the Government revised the Environment Conservation Act and Wastes Control Act. Along with this, the Government devised pollution control measures that directly affected the lives of the people, such as improving water quality testing methods and the setting of drinkingwater standards. In addition, the National Environmental Agency, with support from the Asian Development Bank and WHO, carried out a large-scale investigation of water pollution in the Han River (31).

Wilfried Kreisel, a WHO adviser in the Republic of Korea for six years, was helpful in understanding the serious state of environmental pollution at the time (see the Biographies section for more on Kreisel). He explained (32):

While I was working in the field of air quality control at a university in Germany, I received an offer from WHO to work in the Republic of Korea and came to Seoul in June 1977. At that time, the Republic of Korea was experiencing a remarkable change in its economy,