War against vector-borne diseases

Health ministers of eleven countries of WHO’s South-East Asia Region have adopted a “Dhaka Declaration” to control and eliminate vector-borne diseases from the this part of the world.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 9 Sept 2014, 03:12 PM
Updated : 9 Sept 2014, 03:12 PM

The declaration came after the end of their 32nd annual meeting Dhaka hosted on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the meeting that would follow the 67th session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia.

Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste are the members of WHO’s South-East Asia Region.

Approximately 1.4 billion people vulnerable to malaria, 871 million exposed to lymphatic filariasis, and over 147 million are at risk of contracting kala-azar in the Region.

Besides, WHO says, 52 percent of those vulnerable to dengue globally live in the countries of the region.

This drew the attention of the health minister’s in this year’s meeting.

Bangladesh, too, suffers from six mosquito-borne diseases: malaria, kala-azar, filariasis, and Japanese encephalitis, dengue, and Chikungunya.

WHO says most of these diseases are either preventable or curable, and the ministers will look “at a more comprehensive and inter-sectoral approach for their prevention, control and elimination”.

The Dhaka Declaration spells out those steps.

The health ministers have committed themselves to pursue “an inter-sectoral and multidisciplinary approach” in control and elimination of vector-borne diseases by adopting the declaration.

They also recognised the need to strengthen health systems “to provide timely treatment and response to vector-borne disease outbreaks, and to strengthen national capacity building by training of vector control teams”.

WHO says the declaration is a commitment by health ministers “to build capacity for efficient surveillance; strengthen national databases and develop mechanisms for data sharing and to encourage research on vector-borne diseases and disease control programmes”.

It says the health minister reviewed their health-related development work in the region, identified challenges and provided policy direction for future action.

Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Thailand have collectively signed an MoU to eliminate a vector-borne disease kala-azar by 2020 on the sidelines of their meeting.