The 57th Round of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Meeting will be opened Sunday in the regional’s office in Cairo.
Dr. Hanif Hassan, Minister of Health, heads the UAE delegation to the meeting which comprises Dr. Mahmood Fikri-Executive, Director for Health Practices, Nasser Khelifa Al Budoor, Director of External Relations and International Organizations, and Dr Nariman Al Mulla, Advisor to the Minister.
The meeting will discuss the latest health issues of utmost importance to the regional committee members and the health experts and their discussions about important decisions.
Dr. Mahmood Fikri, Executive Director for Health Policies at the Ministry of Health, explained that working papers will highlight the topic of infection prevention in health care facilities especially that the scientific study assured the increasing dangers of infections in developing countries compared to the developed countries with a 25%.
Dr. Fikri said that the paper suggests a number of procedures that can be implemented in various countries to avoid infection healthcare facilities.
He said: “The second paper discusses ways of improving the financing of health care facilities in the Eastern Mediterranean Region to avoid the current situation in which individuals suffer from the large paid amounts of money. Such an issue requires us to take the move towards rapid universal health care coverage through systemized strategies”.
He also pointed out that mental disorders among mothers and children and adolescents is a public health problem with an estimated rate of 15-36% among mothers while 10-36% among children and adolescents. Such rates are higher than the advanced countries where as mental disorders lead to negative results on reproductive health and their development.
The regional committee members will discuss strategic trends and procedures to eliminate the stress of mental diseases. Dr. Fikri said: “The human immune deficiency virus that causes AIDS, continues its expansion pointing out that the number of new infections in the region ranged between 50-100 thousand cases last year”.
The regional committee will also consider a draft resolution to acknowledge the solutions of the HIV epidemic and strengthen the combat and challenges of the disease more effectively. The regional committee members will also review the project of the nutrition regional strategy between 2010 till 2015, a strategy that supports the precautions of improving nutritious situation in the region.
Following up the healthcare issues, the regional committee members will also study the reports of the forthcoming periods: -the free tobacco initiative in light of the national legislations of the countries and the current status of the fight against tobacco as a result of the lack of a systematic approach of tobacco control.
The Executive Director for Health Policies at the Ministry of health pointed out the state members must abide by enhancing the primary healthcare since the Doha declaration in 2008 whether by broadening the concepts of family medicine or increasing the health policies.
The report sheds light on the latest progress of polio eradication. About 19 countries maintained their efforts in being polio free countries while others are very close to obtain the complete eradication of the disease. Unfortunately, countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan remain virus endemic while the emergence of imported cases in Sudan stopped few months back.
The progress report on achieving the Millennium development goals provides a clear picture for the regional countries to achieve the requested goals by the year 2015. About 10 countries are exposed to the possibility of failure in achieving the goals in a timely manner unless the initiatives accelerate the pace of work.
In addition, the regional committee will also review the annual report of the regional director about the works of the regional official during the year 2009. They will also discuss the decisions and drafts of the World Health Organization “WHO” and the Executive Council of WHO.
WAM