India providing strength to SEARO region on affordable medical counter measures: Union Health Secy

Union Health Secretary Apurva Chandra chaired the high-level meeting on “Advancing Health and Well-Being of Billions in the WHO South-East Asia Region. He stressed that India, by being the pharma capital of the world, is providing strength to the SEARO region on affordable medical counter measures.

The event, a side-event to the 77th World Health Assembly, co-hosted by the WHO Regional Office for Southeast Asia (SEARO) and Indian government, was held in Geneva on Tuesday. The meeting is aimed to strategise concerted actions of member States, WHO and Partners in addressing key public health agenda in Southeast Asia Region.

The meeting began with a video on India’s Health Journey demonstrating the four pillars of Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Mission catalysing the access to universal health coverage for citizens in India.

While addressing the gathering on Monday, Apurva Chandra stressed that the digital technologies being leveraged by India during COVID-19 pandemic like CoWIN are today being tranformed by UWIN, a digital platform for tracking immunization and creation of digital certificate for every child.

He also spoke about the BHISM cube, an innovative product developed under India’s Aarogya Maitri Project, which is a compact, modular medical aid cube created to treat up to 200 casualties and equipped with cutting edge technology that can be deployed during any disasters and emergencies.

During the event, member states made various interventions on the need for strengthening cooperation and collaboration with other nations, on issues like vaccination catch-up and vaccine delivery and non-communicable diseases etc.

Other partners raised the issues like strengthening health system preparedness for health emergencies, post-pandemic recovery, dealing with climate crisis, ageing population and compounding mental health issues, decentralization of health issues to provincial and district level and strengthening pandemic preparedness response and Health security.

Hekali Zhimomi, Additional Secretary, Union Health Ministry, Aradhana Patnaik, Additional Secretary and Managing Director (NHM), Union Health Ministry, Basant Garg, Additional CEO, National Health Authority, Arindam Bagchi, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva attended the event.

Furthermore, WHO SEARO Regional Director Saima Wazed, Regional Director, WHO SEARO, representatives from member states of WHO SEARO and representatives from key development partners active in the Southeast Asia region and WHO Senior management and Secretariat were also present on the occasion.

In a post on X, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated, “Union Health Secretary addresses High-Level Meeting on ‘Advancing Health and Well-Being of Billions in @WHO South-East Asia Region’ Highlights India’s digital technologies and platforms like UWIN which is being utilized for tracking immunization and creation of digital certificate for every child India by being the pharma capital of the world is providing strength to the SEARO region on affordable medical counter measures: Union Health Secretary.”

Apurva Chandra addressed Committee A of the World Health Assembly in Geneva on Monday. He stated that the traditional public health approach of focusing on community interventions like information and awareness as well as preventive measures holds the key to better health outcomes.

Union Health Secretary noted that India has been taking lead in advocating for digital health innovations as key to the critical transformative process required to help achieve goals, according to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare press release.

While addressing Committee A of the World Health Assembly in Geneva on Monday, Apurva Chandra said, “At this critical juncture, when all countries are working towards our collective Sustainable Development Goals and ensuring health services for all so that no one gets left behind, India has been taking the lead in advocating for digital health innovations as key to the critical transformative process required to help us achieve our goals.”

He further said, “This philosophy guides our efforts to promote well-being for all, facilitate Universal Healthcare coverage, and achieve health-related Sustainable Development Goals.”

Apurva Chandra said that India, during the COVID-19 pandemic, not only managed the crises within the nation but also provided medicines and health related products across the world embodying the spirit of “One World, One family”.