WHO Regional committee to decide Regional health priorities

SEAR/PR/1579

New Delhi: Health Ministers from the 11 countries of WHO’s South-East Asia Region will meet in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 9 to 12 September to discuss key health issues facing the Region.

The Thirty-second Meeting of Health Ministers of the Region will be held on 9 September. The Health Ministers’ Meeting is a forum for exchange of views and for discussion on health issues important to the Region. It fosters cooperation among Member States and helps to forge bilateral and multi country cooperation in the field of health. This meeting will be hosted by H.E. Mr Mohammed Nasim, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Bangladesh. The Ministers of Health will discuss ways to address vector borne diseases and are expected to adopt the “Dhaka Declaration” on this issue.

This will be followed by the Sixty-seventh Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia. The Regional Committee is a statutory body comprising the Member States of the Region, which convenes once a year to review progress and regional implications of the World Health Assembly resolutions.

Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, and Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director for South-East Asia, will be present with WHO experts at both meetings.

At the Health Ministers’ Meeting, Vector borne diseases will be the focus of discussion. Globally, a billion people are estimated to be infected from vector-borne diseases, and over a million die from them each year. Millions of people in the South-East Asia Region are at risk from dengue, malaria, lymphatic filariasis and kala-azar. Most of these diseases are either preventable or curable, and the ministers will look at a more comprehensive and intersectoral approach for their prevention, control and elimination.

During the Regional Committee meeting, among the Technical subjects that will be discussed are:

• “Covering every birth and death: improving civil registration and vital statistics” One in three births and two in three deaths are not registered globally. Civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) of births, deaths and causes of death are crucial for health policy decisions. Lack of reliable data is a constraint for effective health planning and management. Recognizing the need to prioritize CRVS, a draft Regional Strategy on Strengthening the Role of Health Sector in Improving CRVS has been finalised by the countries of the region.
  
  
• ‘Traditional medicine’: Traditional medicine (TRM) is an important part of health care, and most countries in the Region have their own form of traditional medicines. WHO‘s new TRM strategy (2014-2023) aims to harness its potential contribution to health and universal health coverage. It aims to promote best practices in using good quality traditional medicines ensuring their regulation, research and appropriate integration into the health system.
  
  
• ‘Strengthening the implementation of the WHO Global Strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol to support the achievement of the regional targets on prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases’. The harmful use of alcohol causes a huge social, economic and disease burden. Alcohol consumption is linked to over 200 health conditions including alcohol dependence, liver cirrhosis, cancers and injuries. There is an increase in the consumption of alcohol in WHO’s South-East Asia Region. Heavy episodic or “binge drinking” and younger people experimenting with alcohol at a very early age are some of the issues facing the Region.
  
  
• ‘Strengthening emergency and essential surgical care and anaesthesia as a component of universal health coverage’. Surgically treatable conditions are among the top 15 causes of disability worldwide. 11% of the burden of disease is attributable to health problems which could have been treated with surgery. Surgical services are often not available or are limited at the lowest levels of health care facilities in low and lower-middle income settings. There is a need to include emergency and essential surgical care and anaesthesia as part of universal health coverage in order to make them accessible and affordable.
  
  
• ‘Viral hepatitis’: Viral hepatitis kills approximately 500,000 people per year in the Region and poses a serious public health problem. Most of the deaths are caused by Hepatitis B and C infections which lead to hepatic cirrhosis and cancer. The implementation of the Regional Strategy for Viral Hepatitis to prevent and control this disease in the Member States shall be discussed.
  
  
• ‘Regional strategy on strengthening health workforce education and training’: Most countries of the Region face problems related to their health workforce (HWF) including shortage, misdistribution, inappropriate skills mix and ineffective management and deployment. The Regional Strategy aims to establish a competent and committed health workforce in adequate numbers with relevant skills mix for improved health services in communities.
  
  

What: a) Thirty-second Meeting of Ministers of Health of WHO’s South-East Asia Region
b) Sixty-seventh Session of the Regional Committee for South-East Asia

When: 9 – 12 September 2014

Where: Hotel Sonargaon, Dhaka, Bangladesh

WHO’s South-East Asia Region comprises the following 11 Member States: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste.