Session to nominate WHO SE Asia Director to begin on Oct 30

Health ministers from member countries will be meeting here next week to deliberate on priority health issues and nominate the next World Health Organization Regional Director for South-East Asia. Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Bangladesh have eliminated lymphatic filariasis -- a tropical disease.

Health ministers from member countries will be meeting here next week to deliberate on priority health issues and nominate the next World Health Organization Regional Director for South-East Asia. The 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia, the annual governing body meeting of WHO at the regional level, will be held from October 30 to 2 November 2023. The meeting will attended by WHO's Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and its South-East Asia Regional Director Dr Poonam Khetrapal, a WHO statement said. The stakeholders are slated to discuss ways to accelerate the prevention and control of cardiovascular diseases and how to eradicate tropical diseases, among others issues. A ministerial roundtable will be held on strengthening primary health care as a key element towards achieving universal health coverage, the statement said. The regional committee will vote to nominate the next WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia on Wednesday. There are two candidates in the fray – Bangladesh nominee Saima Wazed and Nepal nominee Dr Shambhu Prasad Acharya. The nomination will be submitted to the WHO Executive Board, which will meet in Geneva, Switzerland from January 22 to 27 next year.

The next Regional Director will assume office on February 1 for a five-year term. During the session starting October 30, countries will be felicitated for public health achievements, the UN body statement said. Home to more than 2 billion people, the region has made accelerating progress around WHO's local flagship programmes.

Since 2014, the region has eliminated polio and maternal and neonatal tetanus. Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Timor-Leste have eliminated measles and rubella, one of the eight flagship priorities, it said. Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Bangladesh have eliminated lymphatic filariasis -- a tropical disease. Nepal and Myanmar eliminated trachoma, and India was verified yaws-free, the statement said. Sri Lanka and Maldives eliminated malaria. Thailand, Maldives, and Sri Lanka eliminated mother-to-child transmission of syphilis and HIV. Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Thailand achieved hepatitis B control, it said. Focusing on accelerating reduction of maternal, neonatal and under-5 mortality, the region recorded 68.5 per cent reduction in maternal mortality between 2000 and 2020, 45 per cent reduction in under-5 mortality, and 39 per cent reduction in neonatal mortality during the period. DPR Korea, Indonesia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Thailand have achieved 2030 SDG targets of reducing under-5 mortality and neonatal mortality.

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