NGO Forum on Ageing 5-9 April 2002

ALEXANDRE KALACHE, PERSON IN CHARGE OF THE PROGRAMME OF AGEING AND COURSE OF LIFE OF WHO: “IN THE FUTURE THERE WILL BE MORE ELDERLY PEOPLE BUT LESS HANDICAPPED. 

NGO Forum on Ageing
April 8, 2002

Q. Are there any important differences between the main health problems that affect the elderly all over the world?

A. Basically not. Problems in old age are the same in developed and developing countries. Maybe we should out point the great incidence of infectious diseases in these ones, but all of them are threatened by cardiovascular problems, traumatisms and chronic disease. Because of that, the health structures of the world have prepared for accurate episodic pathologies. Now we should move toward facing the chronic ones.

Q. What is the previsions for elderly people? Is there a place for hope?

A. I would say so. In the last twenty years, there has been an interesting tendency towards hope in the developed countries, like in the USA where the number of handicapped elderly people has fallen. There will be more elderly, in better conditions, due to two reasons: because they will reach the old age with a better environment ( nourishing, environmental and social) and because they will have better health resources. In developing countries the main problem will be that all of them can not get these resources. However I trust and fight for development policies in these countries.

Q. What are the plans of the WHO for the elderly?