The final plenary session of the "Geneva Forum: Towards Global Access to Health" was dedicated to summarizing the key issues which emerged during the three days of discussion and exchange and to formulate suggestions on how to develop these issues in the future. The final plenary was also a moment to thank all the contributors of the Forum for their effort and participation.

Malaria, being the number one disease and responsible for half of the children's mortality rate in Africa, has been lately gaining increased media and political attention. This symposium focused on the latest tools and methods of malaria prevention and treatment. The participants pointed to the encouraging results of some of these methods and discussed the challenges that still hamper their universal implementation.

The three speakers of this session all emphasized the increasing negative impact of diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria on economic and social development in the world today. As Mr. Kazatchkine said: "The health sector [...] was originally seen as a non-profitable source of expenditure, is now considered as a factor and a necessary investment for development". Indeed, the benefits of preventing and treating HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria outweigh the costs caused by such diseases. Other topics discussed included sources of funding for treatment and prevention of these diseases, as well as problems in providing efficient health care for victims in the developing world.

"The illnesses of invisible people usually stay invisible." With all the technological progress and the advances made by global health alliances, can this still be the reality? Indeed, 18 million people are suffering from Chagas' disease and 500,000 new infections with visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar) occur per year. Who can and will take action to solve this problem? New ways, based on solidarity, knowledge sharing, and the collaboration of trans-national partnerships and countries were presented in this symposium on the most neglected diseases.

More than 2,600,000 deaths have been prevented in 2003 thanks to the Hepatitis B vaccine currently available. This is only one impressive example of the benefits of good vaccination and immunisation programmes. Although vaccination programmes are very cost-efficient, costing as less than 1,000 USD per life saved, the world still faces over 100,000 neonatal tetanus deaths and over 400,000 deaths from measles per year. The international community has a very ambitious plan: to completely eradicate diseases which are preventable by global vaccine coverage. How can such a goal be accomplished?

A flu pandemic is inevitable, scientists say. Yet we are the first humans ever to have had fore-knowledge of a pandemic, which gives us a unique opportunity to act to address the crisis before it occurs. Sustained political attention and collaboration between the public and private sector hold our greatest hope of effectively managing this disastrous event.

Un constat s'impose : les moyens visant à l'amélioration de la santé ne cessent de progresser et de se diversifier, alors que l'accès à ces moyens reste limité, voire inexistant dans de nombreuses régions du monde.

The means aimed at improving health and healthcare are constantly increasing and diversifying, whereas access to these means remains limited â€" even non-existent â€" in many regions of the world.

The availability of quality and non-counterfeit drugs is an essential part of any health care delivery service. This session presented the audience with information related to the expansion of private-public partnerships (PPPs) for the development of safe drugs and of drugs for neglected diseases. The speakers also pointed out the danger of counterfeit drugs and the efforts undertaken to combat this serious and life threatening menace.