Confce of Health Secretaries Concludes
'Allocate more resources to address new challenges'
Staff Correspondent
A two-day 10th conference of the health secretaries of 11 Southeast Asian countries ended in the city yesterday with a call to allocate more resources and technical assistance in order to address new health challenges."Strengthening the national public health infrastructure is the key to overcoming the health challenges in the region," said Health Secretary AFM Sarwar Kamal at a press conference at the Sonargaon Hotel. He said a balanced health workforce and development of a robust surveillance and monitoring mechanism must accompany the infrastructure building. At the conference, the delegates from 11 WHO-member states called for a joint approach towards elimination of both infectious and deadly diseases from the region. They focussed on four key issues -- health action in emergencies and disaster management, polio eradication, revision of international health regulations and Asia-pacific strategy on emerging diseases. The delegates also called on the World Health Organisation (WHO) to support the member states in systematically addressing their needs in emergency preparedness and response. On polio eradication issue, they recommended that the countries should ensure that adequate resources are provided for increasing and maintaining high routine immunisation coverage and surveillance in order to maintain their polio-free status. They also recommended that the countries need to develop the core capacity and further strengthen the health system. Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, regional director of WHO, Dr Duang Veedi Shankobol, WHO representative in Bangladesh, Dr Abdur Rahman Khan, director general of Health Services, were present at the conference.
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