We can be confident that the new millennium will bring unexpected changes in what we do and how we see ourselves: but even now we can be assured that much of this change will be driven by the marvels of communication and information technologies.
In our main story we explore the possibilities of the global electronic information explosion and how it will revolutionize our health practices. We already can see practical applications in this new discipline, such as educating and training at a distance and telemedicine, which allows the transmission of health information to create a more level field of health services. Research into new and old diseases will be facilitated by the ease of information transfer. The future in this field will be limited only by our imagination and our willingness to change.
"We live forwards, but we understand backwards," the philosopher William James once said, and certainly the future is built on the foundation of the past. The present is the juncture of both moments. Today's resurgence of interest in traditional medicine techniques and systems-some dating back a thousand years or more-is a reminder of that juncture.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 65 to 80 percent of the world's population, or about 3 billion people, rely on traditional medicine as their primary form of health care. In the United States, one in three people routinely uses some type of alternative medicine. In both developed and developing countries, the intrinsic value of traditional medicine is derived from its holistic focus on the natural environment and lifestyle-including diet, rest, exercise, human relations, sexuality, even moral and spiritual factors-that does much to satisfy the human desire to be understood.
In developing countries such as Bolivia, traditional healers can be a significant potential resource for public policy planning to improve health care, for reasons we'll see in one of our feature stories. The inseparability of humankind from nature is a concept modern medicine too often overlooks. The challenge ahead for researchers studying traditional medicine will be to distinguish between the underevaluated and the ineffective.
Diabetes is often a disease of social progress, and as such, is showing up in new and unlikely places. In this age of information, awareness about this serious and increasingly common disease is unacceptably low: more than half the population of developed countries cannot name a single symptom of diabetes. Still more disturbing is the fact that roughly one of every two persons who have diabetes does not know it until a serious complication sets off an alarm. Much of the human suffering that accompanies this disease, however, can be alleviated by sound prevention and control measures adopted by people and governments.
Are we on the road to better life opportunities for children in the 21st century? Can our new tools improve their health? A photo essay in this edition explores these questions. Should the health sector stand alone in caring for children and promoting their growth and development? Obviously, no. Their well-being requires political action at the highest levels and the involvement of all sectors of society. Children are everyone's concern.
WHO observes its 50th anniversary this year and we invite you to join us in this historic celebration and reflect on the next half century and its challenges, some of which are shown in the pictures and words of this issue. We also encourage your letters and comments.
To your health,
