ULSACMUN 2018
World Health Organization
Chair
President: Ajitzi Millán Torres
Moderator: Sofía Cuevas Carrera
Conference Officer: Vanessa Yosahandy Palacios Castañón
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Topic A: The Black Death (1346-1353)
Coming out of the East, the Black Death reached the shores of Italy in the spring of 1346 unleashing a rampage of death across Europe unprecedented in recorded history. By the time the epidemic played itself out three years later, anywhere between 25% and 50% of Europe's population had fallen victim to the pestilence.
The Black Death is well-known because of the human casualties (estimates go from 75 to 200 million people) and the devastation it caused in almost every part of Europe and a great part of Asia. As a result of the subject treated, this will be a thorough-time topic, and on it, delegates would take place in the XIV century.
Having no defense and no understanding of the cause of the pestilence, men, women and children caught in its onslaught were bewildered, panicked, and finally devastated.
No doctor's advice, no medicine could overcome or alleviate this disease. An enormous number of ignorant men and women set up as doctors in addition to those who were trained.
Delegates will use the measurements, infrastructure and resources of those times, on how to stop pandemics disasters but also take into consideration the worldview (religious, social, and economic aspects) of the time and the advances in Medicine and public health of the medieval Europe.
Delegates will also have to take into consideration the rapid advance of this plague; they will be attacked with critical actions depending on how the development of this topic goes on and must act as quick as they can to try to stop the disaster that could be put in front of them. In this committee the delegates would be in charge of changing this event in a good or even in a worse way, it all would depend on the strategies they come up with.
Topic B: Creation of international protocols to face the effects of the permafrost melting
We are now getting used to hearing about the polemic surrounding the topic of climate change and its effects. However, not all the consequences are as well-known as we may think. The permafrost is a cape of the polar ice, which has been on the planet since the last ice age. It is supposed not to melt (therefore its name). Nevertheless, in the past decades there has been an alarming decrease in dimensions of these enormous pieces of what it is supposed to be the "permanent ice".
In this topic delegates will try to reach the establishment of a protocol for international actions in order to face the effects of the permafrost melting. These effects have clear relation with the subjects usually adopted by the WHO as it include the possibility of the sea level rising, with the unavoidable consequence of coastal floods that may affect nearly 1,000 million people around the world.
Another effect of the permafrost melting is the spread of infectious diseases. The permafrost melting will bring escalating temperatures may cause severe weather and extreme heat, resulting in injuries and heat-related illnesses. Cholera and bacterial blooms of malaria, dengue, encephalitis, hantavirus, chikungunya, and more are the among the terrible expectations. And, since we live in a thoroughly interconnected world due to the ease of global travel, the effects of these disease agents will potentially influence billions.
A third and almost sci-fi effect is that frozen permafrost soil is the perfect place for bacteria to remain alive for very long periods of time, perhaps as long as a million years. That means melting ice could potentially open a “Pandora's box” of diseases.
As the temperature in the Arctic Circle rises quickly, about three times faster than in the rest of the world, and the ice and permafrost melt, other infectious agents may be released. Permafrost is a very good preserver of microbes and viruses, because it is cold, there is no oxygen, and it is dark. Pathogenic viruses that can infect humans or animals might be preserved in old permafrost layers, including some that have caused pandemic diseases in the past.
Summoned delegations
1. Anatolian Beyliks (Topic A)/ Turkey (Topic B)
2. Byzantine Empire (Topic A)/ Canada (Topic B)
3. Crown of Castile (Topic A)/ United States of America (Topic B)
4. Delhi Sultanate (Topic A)/ India (Topic B)
5. Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Topic A)/ Norway (Topic B)
6. Grand Principality of Moscow (Topic A)/ Russian Federation (Topic B)
7. Holy Roman Empire (Topic A)/ Germany (Topic B)
8. Kingdom of Aragon (Topic A)/ Iceland (Topic B)
9. Kingdom of Denmark (Topic A)/ Denmark (Topic B)
10. Kingdom of England (Topic A)/ United Kingdom of the Great Britain (Topic B)
11. Kingdom of France (Topic A)/ France (Topic B)
12. Kingdom of Hungary (Topic A)/ Japan (Topic B)
13. Kingdom of Poland (Topic A)/ People’s Republic of China (Topic B)
14. Kingdom of Portugal (Topic A)/ Netherlands (Topic B)
15. Kingdom of Scotland (Topic A)/ Brazil (Topic B)
16. Kingdom of Sicily (Topic A)/ Mexico (Topic B)
17. Kingdom of Sweden (Topic A)/ Sweden (Topic B)
18. Lordship of Ireland (Topic A)/ Somalia (Topic B)
19. Mongol Empire (Topic A)/ Australia (Topic B)
20. Most Serene Republic of Venice (Topic A)/ Argentina (Topic B)
21. Representative of the Jewish Community in Europe (Topic A)/ Israel (Topic B)
22. Representative of the Muslim Community In Europe (Topic A)/ Saudi Arabia (Topic B)
23. Republic of Genoa (Topic A)/ Thailand (Topic B)
24. Serbian Empire (Topic A)/ Nigeria (Topic B)
25. State of the Church (Topic A)/ Guinea (Topic B)
Delegations that appear in yellow have already been assigned.
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