The definition of health by WHO has been revised to emphasize its dynamic and spiritual aspects:

Old definition: Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

New definition: Health is a dynamic state of complete physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

A Global Conference on the theme "Universities and The Health of the Disadvantaged: Building Coalitions with Local Governments, Health Professions, and Their Communities" will be held July 11-15, 1999, at Tucson, Arizona. It is cosponsored by WHO, UNESCO and the Univ. of Arizona. For more information, contact Andrew Nichols of the University of Arizona, phone(520) 626-7862, email anichols@rho.arizona.edu or check the conference website at http://www.ahsc.arizona.edu/rho/global.

Mohammad Akhter, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association, would like CCIH to encourage Christian Health Associations and other national coalitions of faith-based health programs to collaborate with national Public Health Associations. APHA functions as the secretariat of the World Federation of Public Health Associations (http://www.apha.org/wfpha/basic.html), which is made up of 60 national Public Health Associations. Areas of collaboration could include information sharing, networking, program coordination, training, advocacy, and public education.

The world mourns the loss in the recent Swissair plane crash of Jonathan Mann, former AIDS pioneer and Harvard professor. He was also known for his thinking on the nexus of health and human rights. He said, "By emphasizing the inalienable rights of each person, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights bridges the individual and the universal and establishes for the first time in history, in a secular or polyreligious world, a clear and explicit basis for equality, common humanity, and therefore a global approach to health problems. The discovery of the inextricable linkage between health and human rights is one of the great advances in the history of health." CCIH would like to hear your ideas about what the Christian faith has to say about the human rights dimensions of health.

We are working on CCIH involvement in the June 1999 conference of the Global Health Council/NCIH. The theme is "Global Health, Poverty, and Development." Jimmy Carter will be there. CCIH hopes to present a panel on Christian dimensions of the theme, but we need more ideas and presenters. The stated deadline for abstracts is Nov. 9. We also encourage members to bring articulate poor to participate.

Dr. Sambe Duale will receive the1998 Outstanding Alumnus Award from the Tulane School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine. He served as a Covenant Church doctor in northern Zaire, was medical director of the Karawa health zone, and later became director of an innovative national rural primary health care project (SANRU). He is currently research director for a USAID-funded Africa regional health project. You can email your congratulations him at sduale@aed.org.