Declaration of Alma-Ata

The International Conference on Primary Health Care met at Alma-Ata, in the Soviet Union, from 6 to 12 September 1978, sponsored jointly by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. On the final day it adopted a short declaration. Health, it said, was a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, and it was a fundamental human right. The gross inequality in health between developed and developing countries, and within countries, was declared unacceptable on political, social and economic grounds and a concern of every country.

The declaration defined primary health care as essential care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods, made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation. It was to be the first level of contact with the health system, bringing care as close as possible to where people live and work. People, it stated, had a right and a duty to take part in planning and carrying out their own health care.

Section VII listed what primary health care should include at a minimum: education about prevailing health problems and how to prevent and control them; food supply and proper nutrition; safe water and basic sanitation; maternal and child health care, including family planning; immunization against the major infectious diseases; prevention and control of locally endemic diseases; appropriate treatment of common diseases and injuries; and essential drugs. It also had to involve agriculture and the other sectors of national and community development, beyond the health services.

The conference set a target for governments, international organizations and the world community: by the year 2000, all peoples should reach a level of health that would let them lead socially and economically productive lives, with primary health care as the key. The declaration argued that this could be done through fuller and better use of the world's resources, a considerable part of which was then spent on armaments and military conflicts.