THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

WHO regional director gets second term to build on successes

WHO regional director gets second term to build on successes

Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh has been appointed regional director for World Health Organisation Southeast Asia, for a second five-year term.

The WHO executive board on Saturday unanimously endorsed Dr Khetrapal Singh, who was earlier also unanimously nominated by 11 member countries of the region for another five years.
Outlining her vision for the next term that begins on February 1, 2019, Dr Khetrapal Singh said her approach would be to sustain the gains, accelerate progress to finish the unfinished agenda, and to innovate to ensure the health and wellbeing of 1.8 billion people across the region.
In her first term, Dr Khetrapal Singh focused on building an increasingly responsive and accountable WHO in the region, while prioritising persisting and emerging epidemiological and demographic challenges. She also promoted universal health coverage and building robust health systems, strengthening emergency risk management and articulating a strong regional voice in the global health agenda. 
She identified eight flagship priority programmes, focusing on results and accountability, designed to cascade into sustainable and result-oriented efforts.
In the last five years inclusive, sustainable and quantifiable gains have been made in the region and are accelerating in pace every year, according to a press release on Monday.
Certified polio-free in 2014, WHO Southeast Asia in 2015 became the second WHO region to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus. Four countries eliminated measles and six controlled rubella. Also, maternal and under-five deaths reduced significantly. 
Thailand became the first in Asia-Pacific, and the first with a large HIV epidemic, to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. Maldives and Sri Lanka were certified malaria free. Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand eliminated lymphatic filariasis, while India was declared yaws-free and Nepal trachoma-free.
For universal health coverage, access to safe, high-quality medicine is being enhanced through the Southeast Asia Regulatory Network established in 2016. Countries have developed multisectoral action plans for a whole-of-society approach to reverse non-communicable diseases.
There is a strong political commitment to end TB by 2030.
Prone to natural disasters, the region’s investment in strengthening emergency risk management is evident from the responses to the Nepal earthquake, the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh, cyclones, floods and earthquakes.
Despite progress we have challenges; some permanent, some programmatic, some epidemiological and some transient, said Dr Khetrapal Singh.
Detailing her vision for her next term in her acceptance speech to the executive board, Dr Khetrapal Singh said: “We must sustain the gains we made. It means ensuring we hold fast to our progress in diseases elimination, which history shows can return with a vengeance if attention falters, and ensuring that there is no room for complacency. 
“We must accelerate sustainable progress,” she said. 
Her eight regional flagship priority programmes are aligned to WHO’s global goals and health targets for Sustainable Development Goal 3.
“We must innovate”, Dr Khetrapal Singh said, adding innovation means taking advantage of the existing opportunities, being agile in applying research findings and developing new policies to meet the challenges we face.
“Ending TB will be difficult unless we develop and apply rapid diagnostics, which test and diagnose large populations in a short time,” she said.
Likewise, we cannot hope to eradicate key neglected tropical diseases, which largely affect the poor, unless we can create and implement policies that address the needs of specific communities in specific areas, she said.

 

RELATED
nationthailand