WHO regional committee meet endorses agenda for action on cancer prevention

Regional countries express interest in adopting national health programme

ISLAMABAD: A group of 21 regional countries and the global health body on Thursday endorsed a regional framework for action on cancer prevention and control.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Committee for Eastern Mediterranean region concluded its 64th session on Thursday. This was the first regional committee meeting held in Pakistan,

The committee decided to scale up guidance to member states on policy options including in decision-making and priority interventions for cancer prevention and control according to the national context.

A resolution on antimicrobial resistance was adopted by the committee, urging the member states to develop and endorse individual national action plans and regulations to prevent the purchase of antibiotics without a prescription.

The meeting also endorsed a framework for action on climate change and health to guide the health sector response to climate change, in collaboration with other health determining sectors and build the resilience of health systems.

Later, Federal Minister for Health Saira Afzal Tarar said the regional committee’s meeting in Islamabad was a big achievement for Pakistan and had helped further a positive image of the country.

“The participant’s perceptions of Pakistan has changed. This regional conference has been hailed as one of the best held so far in the region which stretches from Pakistan and Afghanistan in South Asia to the Middle East and North Africa”.

Referring to health milestones achieved by the country, Tarar said that Pakistan is fast moving towards completely eradicating polio.

She further said that Pakistan had presented the Prime Minister’s National Health Programme — providing cashless high-quality health services to the poorest of the poor — in a session on social protection which was highly appreciated.

So much so, Tarar said, that some regional countries had expressed keen interest in replicating this model in their respective countries.

Further, she said that Pakistan’s progress in eradicating polio was shared with regional countries including a transition plan once the virus has been eradicated.

With Pakistan leading a session on assistive technology, a call was made for regional countries to ensure availability of assistive devices for all people who have disabilities. The regional committee also adopted a declaration on including assistive devices as part of universal health coverage which Pakistan had pushed for.

In this regard, Tarar said that they had decided that Pakistan will host the first regional meeting on assistive devices. Moreover, a resource centre on assistive technologies will be established where data on unmet needs of assistive technologies will be collected.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2017.