New Delhi, Sep 3: The health ministers of the South East Asia region will deliberate upon the Covid-19 response of the member nations and measures to achieve universal healthcare among other issues in a World Health Organisation (WHO)’s summit scheduled for next week in Nepal, the agency said today.

“The ongoing pandemic and measures to ‘build back better’ essential health services to achieve universal health coverage are among the key issues that health ministers of Member countries of WHO South-East Asia region will deliberate upon next week. The Seventy Fourth Regional Committee Session of WHO South-East Asia, the annual governing body meeting of WHO in the region, is being hosted by Nepal from 6 to 10 September,” the WHO said in a statement.

Strengthening public health emergency preparedness and response, accelerating progress for prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, and ending viral hepatitis, HIV and STI are among other key issues to be discussed at the annual meeting which is being held virtually for the second consecutive year in view of the pandemic, the agency informed further.

Meanwhile, monitoring progress on universal health coverage, revitalizing school health, and the regional framework for a vaccine action plan for vaccine-preventable diseases would also be discussed, it added.

The UN body said that the meeting will be attended by WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, regional director Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, health ministers and senior health officials of member countries of the region, UN Agencies, partners, donors, and civil society representatives.

The officials from WHO and member countries will also take stock of the progress being made in the region on resolutions adopted at previous committee meetings, it added.

“Measles and rubella elimination by 2023, improving access to essential medical products, the South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund and strengthening health systems to accelerate delivery of services for non-communicable diseases at the primary health care level, would come up at the meeting,” the statement from the WHO said.

The UN body informed that while responding to the ongoing pandemic, countries in the region are also making efforts around the eight regional flagship priorities – to eliminate measles and rubella by 2023, address noncommunicable diseases through multisectoral policies and plans, accelerate the reduction of maternal, neonatal and under-five mortality, advance universal health coverage, reverse antimicrobial resistance, scale-up emergency risk management capacities and eliminate neglected tropical diseases and TB.

India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and Maldives, Thailand are among the countries which fall in the WHO’s southeast Asia Region mission. (UNI)