G20: Dr Harsh Vardhan highlights India's vision of inclusive health

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan attended the G20 Okayama Health Ministers’ Meeting from October 19-20 in Okayama City of Japan. At the summit, Union Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of ‘Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas, Sab Ka Vishwas' and also spoke about the initiatives like Ayushman Bharat, FIT India Movement and Eat Right Campaign taken by the government under Narendra Modi's regime. The Health Minister also stressed on India's contribution to sustaining UHC at the global level.

G20 Health Ministers in Japan

The summit of G20 Health Ministers in Japan focussed on four major global issues which included, namely (i) Achievement of Universal Health Coverage (ii) Response to population ageing (iii) Management of health risks and health security management including Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) and its containment. During his address at the summit, Dr Harsh Vardhan spoke about India's vision for the 20% elderly Indian population and efforts done by the Indian government under National Programme for Health Care of Elderly to provide accessible, affordable, and high-quality long-term, comprehensive health care services to an ageing population and the public health measures to tackle Dementia.

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Union Minister of Health adopts Okayama Declaration

Dr Harsh Vardhan also addressed the issue of Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) which is a serious emerging threat to global public health. He highlighted India's progress and said that in a short span of time, India has implemented a national action plan by establishing a national antimicrobial resistance surveillance system to contribute to global AMR R&D efforts. He also called upon all relevant agencies of the United Nations (UN) to align themselves in their endeavour to combat antimicrobial resistance. The Union Health Minister shared two best practices which included the successful pulse polio campaign in Delhi in 1994 threatened by a major outbreak of Plague during the same period and the risk communication management to bring down the mass hysteria created by Social media during Nipah outbreak in  Kerala in 2018. He concluded the meet by adopting the “Okayama Declaration of the G 20 Health Ministers.”

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