Kuwait health ministers mulls preparations for Gulf conference

Minister of Health Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sabah has met Chief of the Executive Office of the Council of GCC Health Ministers Tawfiq Khoja on Kuwait's preparations and arrangements for a Gulf health ministerial conference due here in January. During the meeting, they discussed the agenda of the conference which mainly includes response to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as the mainly challenge bugging health programs and development blueprints, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health said in a release on Friday. Sheikh Mohammad, who is also minister of state for cabinet affairs, will preside over the Gulf health ministerial conference due to be held on January 8-9 as the State of Kuwait will chair the next 39th session of the Council of GCC Health Ministers, it said. Meanwhile, Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health for Public Health and Kuwait's Member of the GCC Executive Office of the Council of GCC Health Ministers Qais Al-Dweri said in news remarks Sheikh Mohammad had instructed several organizing, technical and administrative committees to launch proper arrangements for the Gulf health event. A Gulf health exhibition is to be held on the sidelines of the gathering, with participating GCC members' pavilions promoting their health accomplishments and programs and exchanging health experiments, he said. The agenda of the conference also includes programs for fighting smoking and a Saudi suggestion to allocate a day to promote the rights of sick people in the GCC countries, he pointed out. The banner of the gathering, which focuses on response to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), was chosen in line with the world trend to list the prevention of such diseases and relevant burdens as post-2015 world development goals, the Kuwaiti official said.