The COVID-19 pandemic is not the first health emergency to hit the world, and it will not be the last either. According to experts, the world needs to be on its toes for such health emergencies. The South-East Asian region’s 75th Regional Committee meeting in Paro came up with two guidelines to enhance emergency preparedness.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the impact of health emergencies is not just limited to health but also to economies and social welfare. According to the World Health Organization, health has to be the central component of any emergency because the impact of crippled health will have a ripple effect on other sectors.
Therefore, the two roadmaps were built on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the roadmaps (WHO South-East Asia Regional Roadmap for Diagnostic Preparedness, Integrated Laboratory Networking, and Genomic Surveillance 2023-2027) is to improve the technical capacity of the country to test, diagnose and understand.
“It is a document that provides a guideline for member states to strengthen their diagnostic and laboratory capacity. We all know that one of the things that COVID-19 has taught us is that even though we know how important laboratory diagnosis is, not everyone understands how to make it stronger, how to make it better, and how to increase the capacity,” said Dr Edwin Ceniza Salvador, the Regional Emergency Director of SEARO.
The other roadmap, (The Regional Strategy Roadmap on Health Security and Health System Resilience for Emergencies 2023-2027) aims to protect the vulnerable from the impact of public health emergencies by strengthening the national and regional health systems.
The five-day regional committee meeting ended today with member countries committing to enhance capacities to anticipate, prevent and manage health emergencies while streamlining essential and equitable health services.
Kinley Dem
Edited by Sonam
