Dhaka, September 15, 2014, : The Sixty-Seventh session of WHO’s Regional Committee for South-East Asia concluded today with ministers of health adopting resolutions to accelerate health action on key areas.
The RC endorsed the Regional strategy for strengthening the role of the health sector in Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS). The Regional Committee recognized the need for strengthening CRVS and health information systems to ensure evidence-based decision-making. The Committee noted that reliable data is essential for effective health planning and management and that CRVS systems are crucial to obtain continuous, compulsory and cost- effective data on births, deaths and causes of death.
The Committee urged Member States to implement the regional strategy; to assess the national CRVS systems; and to support national capacity building. Countries are urged to build national capacity for strengthening of CRVS; to boost completeness of birth and death registration including supporting the use of verbal autopsy for recording community deaths and to strengthen death certification by trained health-care workers and to strengthen implementation of ICD coding and generate quality mortality statistics from CRVS data.
WHO was requested asked to provide technical support to Member States for knowledge-sharing platforms encompassing a repository of tools; and to harmonize technical and financial support from different international agencies and partners to assist Member States in implementing the standard verbal autopsy tools.
The Committee adopted a resolution on Traditional Medicine (TM). The resolution recalled the Delhi Declaration on Traditional Medicine of 2013 and recognized that traditional medicine and its practitioners have substantial potential to contribute to improving health outcomes in Member States of the Region. It recognized that some Member States in the Region are poised to pursue a harmonized approach towards education, practice, research, and regulation of traditional medicine.
The Committee urged Member States to implement the Delhi Declaration and to adapt and implement the WHO Traditional Medicine strategy 2014-2023 taking into account national capacities, priorities and legislation. Countries were urged to promote national policies and strategies for equitable development and appropriate use of TM; to develop regional cooperation in training, capacity building, and to develop common reference documents and integrate TM into mainstream health care systems to contribute to universal health coverage.
The Regional Committee endorsed the Regional Action plan to implement global strategy to reduce harmful use of alcohol (2014-2025). The Committee was concerned at the increase in alcohol consumption in countries of the Region, particularly among adolescents, youth and women and a high prevalence of heavy or binge drinking. The Member States were concerned that the Region has emerged as a market for the alcohol industry and that the impact of trade agreements was facilitating a greater flow of investment in alcohol, which is likely to lead to increased consumption and negative impact of alcohol in the Region. They noted that alcohol consumption leads to many health problems including NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases and cancers besides having social and economic consequences on the population particularly the poor.
The Committee urged Member States to set national targets to reduce the harmful use of alcohol; develop comprehensive national alcohol policy frameworks to reduce the harmful use of alcohol, and systems and mechanisms to facilitate implementation of the WHO Global Strategy to reduce harmful use of alcohol.
WHO was requested to provide technical support and build capacity of Member States to advance the implementation of the regional plan and to support capacity strengthening and international collaboration mechanisms including setting up of the Regional Technical Advisory Group on Alcohol and Health.
Viral hepatitis: Globally 1.4 million deaths are caused by hepatitis viruses every year with an estimated 800 000 due to hepatitis B and 500 000 as a result of hepatitis C infection. Of these, around 500 000 deaths occur in the South-East Asia Region alone. The Committee was concerned that deaths associated with viral hepatitis exceeded the mortality estimates for malaria, dengue and HIV/AIDs combined and that an estimated 100 million people infected with hepatitis B virus and 30 million infected with hepatitis C reside in the Region.
The participant RC delegates were concerned at the limited and fragmented data on the rates of infection and the resultant morbidity and mortality. They recognized that health systems need to address the challenges for prevention and control of viral hepatitis particularly inadequate disease surveillance; low rates of hepatitis B vaccine coverage of infants, and inadequate use of preventive services like screening transfused blood and blood products. They were also concerned about the low level of awareness among health administrators, policy-makers, medical professionals and the general population about hepatitis viruses, including their routes of transmission, risk factors and impact on human health.
Aware of the importance and need for timely prevention and control of viral hepatitis the Committee urged Member States to establish a unit which would coordinate, implement supervise and monitor national programmes for hepatitis; to establish national viral hepatitis surveillance systems; to develop national plans to prevent and control viral hepatitis including management of individuals living with hepatitis.
WHO was requested to provide technical support to Member States in implementation of national viral hepatitis prevention and control efforts based on WHO Regional Strategy on prevention and control of viral hepatitis.
The Committee endorsed the Regional Strategy on strengthening health workforce education and training in the South-East Asia Region (2014-2019). Participants were concerned about the critical shortage of health workforce which remains a problem particularly in rural and remote areas in countries of the Region.
While progress has been made in several countries which have developed national strategies, the Regional Committee urged Member States to integrate the regional strategy into national strategies on health workforce; increase capacity of quality of training for an adequate number of health workforce; ensure education strategies for the workforce to serve and sustain their contributions in rural communities and where they are most needed. CCI Newswire
