KUALA LUMPUR: Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam will be leading Malaysia's delegation to the 68th session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for the Western Pacific, which is slated for Oct 9 to 13 in Brisbane, Australia.
Subramaniam, who is also the outgoing chairman of the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific, will be delivering the welcoming address at the session’s opening ceremony; and will preside over the committee until the election of a new chairman is held.
The Health Minister, who announced the news in a Facebook post this morning, said that he will be sharing Malaysia’s healthcare success stories, including on medication safety strategies, during the regional launch of the Third Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medications Without Harm on Oct 10.
He said that he will call for member states’ commitment to continuously develop sustainable and high-performing health systems to advance the health and wellbeing of the people of the Western Pacific region.
"The event involves health officials and experts from 37 member nations and Western Pacific territories, who meet annually to set policies and approve budgets and programmes of work.
"This meeting in Brisbane will deliberate on main health agenda items, namely measles and rubella elimination; protecting children from the harmful impact of food marketing; health promotion in the Sustainable Development Goals; triple elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis; transitioning to integrated financing of priority public health services; and food safety," he said.
Subramaniam added that the Western Pacific region, one of the six regions of the WHO, is home to approximately 1.8 billion people, more than one-fourth of the world's population.