Today, with the President of IPA, our distinguished friend Mamdouh Gabr of Egypt, with the President of the XXI International Congress of Pediatrics, our dear colleague Hussein Kamel Bahaa El-Din, Egyptian Minister of Education, and with Cairo graced by the presence of so many thousands of pediatricians, this lovely capital is certainly the center of world pediatrics. Distinguished participants of the Congress, there have been great strides made in maternal and child health during the past decade. Child mortality and morbidity have decreased remarkably in many countries and areas. Poliomyelitis has already been eradicated from the Western hemisphere and is most likely to disappear from the globe by the turn of this century. On the other hand, certain diseases are reappearing.
Tuberculosis is resurgent in both developing and industrialized countries.
In addition to the revival of these scourges, we are witnessing man-made calamities. Of these, the tragedy in the former Yugoslavia dominates the world's attention and is creating Europe's biggest political, miliary, and humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. We are facing outdated nationalism, irredentism, and ethnic tensions dueling animosity and hatred among peoples. Xenophobic tendencies have emerged in Europe and elsewhere that run counter to the tolerance and understanding we are trying to instill in the new world order. The impact of this conflict on the young has been devastating, with thousands killed, displaced, or under siege.