The 32nd meeting of the Ministers of Health of World Health Organisation South-East Asia Region (WHO-SEAR) and the 67th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia has started at Hotel Sonargaon in the city on Tuesday to discuss the key health issues of this region. Health ministers from the 11 countries of WHO SEAR are attending the conference to discuss key health issues facing the region and decide the health priorities.
The meeting will continue until September 12. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the meeting while Health and Family Welfare Minister of Bangladesh Mohammad Nasim chaired the programme. The Health Minister will discuss the ways to address vector borne diseases. WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan and Regional Director for South-East Asia Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh will be present along with WHO experts at both the meetings. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has nominated the daughter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Saima Wazed Hossain Putul, for the South Asia Award for Excellence in Public Health, Nasim said at a press conference on Monday. Putul, chief of the new national advisory committee on autism, has been selected for the award in recognition of her "glorious and outstanding" contributions to create mass awareness about autism in Bangladesh and in South Asia. The health ministers will exchange views and discuss important health issues to foster cooperation among the member states which will forge bilateral and multi-country cooperation in the field of health. As most of the vector borne diseases are either preventable or curable, the ministers will look at a more comprehensive and intersectional approach for their prevention, control and elimination. The other important issues to be discussed at the 67th session are "Covering every birth and death: improving civil registration and vital statistics", 'Traditional medicine', 'Strengthening emergency and essential surgical care and an anaesthesia as a component of universal health coverage', 'Viral hepatitis' and 'Regional strategy on strengthening health workforce education and training'. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) will be signed between Bangladesh and India to help each other to expand the use of traditional medicines. Another MoU will be signed with the Maldives for exporting more medicines and recruiting more doctors from Bangladesh by the Maldives. The Regional Committee is a statutory body comprising the member states of the region, which is convened once a year to review progress and regional implications of the World Health Assembly resolutions. WHO South East Asia region comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and East Timor.
