The 77th session of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Committee for Southeast Asia convened in New Delhi on October 7, 2024, with Union Health Minister JP Nadda elected to serve as chair. As the WHO’s annual Southeast Asian governing body, this committee is essential in forming health policies for member nations such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste.
The three-day program’s main objectives will be to improve public health accessibility and deal with the region’s pressing epidemiological and demographic issues. The growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), mental health concerns, high rates of newborn and under-5 mortality, the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, and the persistent burden of tuberculosis are some of the major difficulties that Razia Pendse, Chef de Cabinet of the World Health Organization, has underlined.
Minister Nadda stressed the importance of bolstering primary healthcare and other key services while restating India’s commitment to Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in his speech. He presented the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri – Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), calling it the largest publicly sponsored health assurance program in the world. It provides hospitalization benefits of USD 6,000 per family annually to over 120 million families. In addition, he said that the program has been expanded to cover all people 70 years of age and over, with the intention of helping about 45 million families and 60 million senior citizens.
Nadda spoke about India’s proactive efforts to combat non-communicable diseases (NCDs), pointing out that the National Programme for Prevention and Control of NCDs has established 356 day care centers and 753 NCD clinics since 2010. Leading the way in digital health, India hopes to showcase its Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) at the G20 Presidency under the Global Initiative on Digital Health, exhibiting initiatives like e-Sanjeevani and the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
In order to track vaccination activities under the Universal Immunization Programme, India established the UWIN platform in response to the CoWIN platform’s success during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nadda also stated that he was in favor of complementary and alternative medicine, emphasizing India’s efforts to further these approaches by establishing the Global Traditional Medicine Center and fusing traditional and modern healthcare.
This session represents a great opportunity for Southeast Asian countries to collaborate address health concerns, develop healthcare systems, and promote creative solutions to increase the well-being of communities across the region.
SOURCE :
DD NEWS
