South-east Asian health ministers meet in India to discuss key health

The eleven Health Ministers of South-East Asia Region on Tuesday met in India to discuss key health issues facing the region. The three day meeting was inaugurated here by the Indian president, Pranab Mukherjee. While addressing the ministers of eleven countries, Mukherjee said Southeast Asia is home to 26.4 percent of the global population and a significant portion of 28 percent of the disease burden in this region arises from communicable diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions and nutritional deficiencies which are closely knitted with poverty. "South East Asia Region has more than 27% of global disease burden due to Non-Communicable Diseases which indicates the increasing prevalence of Non-Communicable Diseases in the region," he said. Each year around 7.9 million people die due to non-communicable diseases accounting for 55% of all deaths in the Region, the President added. Expressing concern that South East Asia region registers the lowest total expenditure on health as a percentage of gross domestic product (3.8%), he said per capita total expenditure on health as per World Health Statistics 2009, with 84.4% is shelled out of pocket expenditure. He stressed that it was important that the countries in the Region strengthen their health systems based on the primary health care approach. The 11 countries of the south east Asia region participating in the health meet include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste. During the meeting, the health ministers adopted a special declaration on high blood pressure. There is also expected to be a separate declaration on ageing, Indian health ministry said. Some of the other key issues that would be discussed are universal health coverage, targets for prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, measles elimination and rubella control.