Skip to main content

*Strengthening health emergency security systems top priority: WHO*

 Kathmandu, 9 September 2021 – The World Health Organization and Member countries of South-East Asia Region discussed further strengthening health emergency security systems to effectively respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future health emergencies.



“The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges. No country globally was prepared enough to deal with an emergency of this scale. It is critical that lessons from the ongoing pandemic are used to inform our efforts to strengthen health security systems,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director WHO South-East Asia, at the Seventy-Fourth Regional Committee meeting.


Strengthening emergency risk management has been a flagship priority programme of the WHO South-East Asia Region since 2014, which has consistently been scaling up response capacities since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, a mega disaster that hit six countries of the Region.


Months before the COVID-19 outbreak, Member countries of the Region had adopted the ‘Delhi Declaration’ to strengthen emergency preparedness capacities by scaling up risk assessment, increasing investments, and enhancing implementation of multi-sectoral plans. Over the years, Member countries made considerable progress in implementing the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) for health emergency preparedness and response.


“Countries fully utilized the existing core capacities to control transmission and save lives while trying to match the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic,” the Regional Director said, adding that “critical gaps in our health security systems and arrangements need to be addressed.”


The Member countries discussed reviewing and reforming various aspects of preparedness, including but not limited to emergency governance structures and workforce, surveillance and alert mechanisms, laboratory, supply management systems, health-care system preparedness and risk communication and community engagement.


The ongoing response has demonstrated that the highest level of political leadership and involvement and functional multisectoral arrangements are crucial in preparing for and responding to severe health emergencies. Such arrangements enable timely, decisive and largescale actions, such as whole-of-government, whole-of-society responses and mobilization of financial resources. These arrangements should be continuously reviewed and strengthened.


Another important lesson from the pandemic is the extraordinary scale of surge capacities across the gamut of response from surveillance and contact tracing to clinical management, laboratory testing, vaccination, and community engagement, that the countries need to plan for.  


The pandemic has reiterated the importance of effective alert mechanism which ensures early notification and information sharing for global risk assessments and coordinated, timely and decisive responses.


Another lesson learnt from the ongoing pandemic is the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical Public Health and Social Measures (PHSM). These measures can stop transmission but also have significant socioeconomic consequences. Hence, epidemiological analysis and response capacity assessment should guide timely adjustment of PHSMs with stringent measures being limited to where and when most needed.


Engaging with people for them to take informed decisions to adopt preventive behavior, support surveillance, contact-tracing, quarantine, and sharing correct information, is critical.


Dr Khetrapal Singh said Member countries must build, strengthen and maintain core capacities required under IHR (2005) through developing and implementing the national action plans for health security, linked with health systems strengthening efforts.


“We must continue to work together to identify priority actions to further strengthen health emergency preparedness and response capacities to respond to the ongoing pandemic and prepare better for future pandemics, emergencies and disasters,” the Regional Director said.

Popular posts from this blog

छतरपुर जिला चिकित्सालय को मिलेअत्याधुनिक जांच उपकरण एस्सेल माइनिंग द्वारा सी-आर्म, रक्त जांच एवं अन्य उपकरण दान

 छतरपुर की स्वास्थ्य अधोसंरचना को मजबूत बनाने के ध्येय को आगे बढ़ाते हुए एस्सेल माइनिंग द्वारा शुक्रवार को छतरपुर जिला चिकित्सालय में अत्याधुनिक सी-आर्म इमेजिंग डिवाइस, हाई फ़्लो नैज़ल कैनुला समेत त्वरित रक्त जांच उपकरण एवं मोरचुरी फ्रीजर भेंट किया गया।  जिला कलेक्टर श्री संदीप जी आर ने फीता काटकर नई सुविधाओं का शुभारंभ किया। इस अवसर पर मुख्य चिकित्सा एवं स्वास्थ्य अधिकारी डॉ विजय पथोरिया एवं अस्पताल के अन्य अधिकारी-कर्मचारी उपस्थित रहे। नए उपकरणों के साथ छतरपुर जिला चिकित्सालय के सुविधाओं में वृद्धि होने के साथ ही हजारों नागरिकों को नई जाँचों का लाभ मिल सकेगा और त्वरित जांच प्राप्त हो सकेगी।कलेक्टर श्री श्री संदीप जी आर द्वारा इस अवसर पर अस्पताल परिसर में पौधा रोपण भी किया गया।  एस्सेल माइनिंग द्वारा लगातार छतरपुर जिले की स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं को उन्नत बनाने में सतत योगदान दिया जा रहा है। पूर्व में गुरुवार को कंपनी द्वारा बक्सवाहा के सामुदायिक स्वास्थ्य केंद्र को बड़ा मलहरा विधायक श्री प्रद्युम्न सिंह लोधी की उपस्थिति में एडवांस्ड लाइफ सपोर्ट एम्बुलेंस भेंट की गई। वेंटीलेटर जैसी सुविधाओं के सा

कर्नाटका बैंक ने इक्विपमेंट फाइनेंसिंग बिजनेस के लिये जेसीबी इंडिया लिमिटेड के साथ साझेदारी की

 कर्नाटका बैंक ने भारत में अर्थमूविंग एवं कंस्‍ट्रक्‍शन इक्विपमेंट बनाने वाली प्रमुख कंपनी जेसीबी इंडिया लिमिटेड के साथ एक समझौता ज्ञापन (एमओयू) पर हस्‍ताक्षर किये हैं। जेसीबी इंडिया लिमिटेड के साथ किए गए इस गठजोड़ की मदद से बैंक के एमएसएमई पोर्टफोलियो के तहत ऋण की सुविधा बेहतर होगी।   इस एमओयू के अंतर्गत, जेसीबी अपने फाइनेंस पार्टनर के तौर पर कर्नाटका बैंक को नॉमिनेट करेगी। परिणामस्‍वरूप, लोग/ठेकेदार/कंपनी/भागीदार कंपनियाँ/एलएलपी, आदि जेसीबी इंडिया लिमिटेड की उत्‍पाद श्रृंखला से विश्‍व-स्‍तरीय उपकरण खरीदने के लिये बैंक से प्रतिस्‍पर्द्धी ब्‍याज दरों पर लोन ले सकेंगे।    इस एमओयू पर हस्‍ताक्षर करने के बाद, कर्नाटका बैंक के प्रबंध निदेशक एवं सीईओ श्री महाबलेश्‍वरा एम.एस. ने कहा, “हमारा फोकस क्रेडिट विकास पर होने के नाते, बैंक एमएसएमई की फाइनेंसिंग में आगे रहता है। हम जेसीबी के साथ एमओयू पर हस्‍ताक्षर करके सचमुच खुश हैं, क्‍योंकि उत्‍कृष्‍टता, सत्‍यनिष्‍ठा और स्‍थायित्‍वपूर्ण विकास के हमारे मूल्‍य उनसे मिलते-जुलते हैं। हमारा बैंक अपने ग्राहकों को डिजिटल प्‍लेटफॉर्म के माध्‍यम से आकर्षक ब

*Reusable pads essential to make menstrual hygiene sustainable for all women and girls*

 If every woman and girl of menstruating age in India used disposable pads, 38,500,000,000 used pads would be discarded every month – an environmental disaster since each of these would take 500-800 years to degrade naturally XXX / May 26, 2021: Considering the immense non-biodegradable waste generated by disposable sanitary pads every month, sustainable menstrual hygiene in India can be achieved only with reusable pads made of organic material, said Anju Bist, Co-Director, Amrita SeRVe (Self Reliant Village) Program of Mata Amritanandamayi Math. Known as the “Pad Woman” of India for her zeal in promoting the use and reuse of sanitary pads made of cloth and banana fibre, she is the co-creator of Saukhyam Reusable Pads which have been awarded as the "Most Innovative Product" by the National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad. The pads were also lauded at the UN Climate Change Conference held in Poland in 2018. Said Anju Bist: “There are 355 million menstruating women an