Union Minister Mandaviya meets WHO Chief at G20 Health Ministers meeting

The G20 Health Minister's Meeting is all set to commence in Gandhinagar on Thursday.

New Delhi: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya held a meeting with World Health Organisation (WHO) Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the sidelines of the G20 Health Ministers’ Meeting, which will start on Thursday (today) at Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

Tedros, who arrived in India on Wednesday, visited the wellness and health centre in Adraj-Gandhinagar, appreciating the arrangements there.

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Taking to his official handle on X, formerly Twitter, Tedros said, “Delighted to be in #India for the @WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit, the Ministerial Meeting on Ending TB in @WHOSEARO and the G20 Health Ministers Meeting. Namaste India!”

“Honoured to visit the wellness and health centre in Adraj-Gandhinagar, #India, which provides #primaryhealthcare services, including maternal care and management of non-communicable diseases, to almost 5000 people from 1000 households. This is what #HealthForAll looks like,” Tedros added in his tweet.

The G20 Health Minister’s Meeting is all set to commence in Gandhinagar on Thursday. The event will culminate on August 19.

The focus of the G20 Health Minister’s Meeting will be on the three key priorities of the G20 – Health Track, including health emergencies prevention, preparedness and response with a focus on anti-microbial resistance and One Health framework; strengthening cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector with a focus on access and availability to safe, effective, quality and affordable medical countermeasures (Vaccines, Therapeutics and Diagnostics); and Digital Health innovations and solutions to aid universal health coverage and improve healthcare service delivery, according to the statement from the Union Health and Family Welfare ministry.

Besides the G20 Deputies Meeting on August 17 and G20 Health Minister’s Meeting from August 18 to19, there will be four side events, including One Earth One Health Advantage Health Care “India 2023; WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit; India MedTech Expo 2023; and Sustain, Accelerate and Innovate to End TB in South-East Asia Region” Conference.

A Joint Finance Health Ministers meeting will also be held on August 19. There will also be combined sessions of G20 and side events during the course of the G20 Health Ministers Meeting, informed Lav Agarwal, additional secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, during a media briefing ahead of the three-day event that started on Thursday.

Rajesh Kotecha, secretary, AYUSH stated, “The G20 is a unique opportunity to showcase India’s leadership in the field of traditional medicine. In the last 9 years, India has developed 8 folds in the field of traditional medicine. By the end of the year, more than 12,500 Ayush-based Health and wellness centres will be functional across the nation, out of which 8,500 are already in place.”

The side event on Medical Value Travel, Advantage Health Care India 2023, is a G20 co-branded event focussing on global collaborations and partnerships for building resilient healthcare systems. This is the biggest government-funded event for Medical Value Travel across the globe.

The India MedTech Expo 2023 will be hosted by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Union government, to harness the substantial potential of the Medical Devices sector towards making India the global hub of MedTech and brainstorm on the path ahead, the statement added.

The Ministerial Meeting on ‘Sustain, Accelerate and Innovate to End TB in the South-East Asia Region’  under the G20 initiative aims at accelerating the fight against TB and ensuring its elimination, it added.