A report on the WHO Working Group on Parkinson's disease

In order to raise awareness of the public health importance of Parkinson's disease, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently established a Wor king Group on Parkinson's Disease and included it in the framework of the W HO Global Initiative on Neurology and Public Health. The first meeting of t his international expert group produced a set of recommendations covering t he following aspects of Parkinson's disease: epidemiology; organisation of services and treatment; education, training and information, and direct and indirect costs of care. An independent international research project enti tled Global Parkinson's Disease Survey has recently been launched in respon se to the recommendations of the WHO Working Group on Parkinson's Disease. This paper summarises the recommendations of this WHO Working Group and out lines objectives, methods and preliminary pilot results of the Global Parki nson's Disease Survey.