THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Dr Peter Singer, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Dr Cherian Varghese (all WHO), Dr V K Paul, Member NITI Aayog, Prof. Balram Bhargava, DG, Indian Council of Medical Research and Dr Kenneth Castro (USAID) are among a formidable line-up of speakers who will be sharing their insights and experiences at an international health webinar organised by the Department of H&FW Govt of Kerala.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the webinar, titled ‘Kerala Health: Making the SDG a Reality’, at 4 pm on February 17.
Dr Peter Singer is the Special Advisor to Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), while his colleagues Dr Maria Van Kerkove is the COVID-19 Technical Lead and Dr Cherian Varghese is the Coordinator of the NCD Management. Dr Kenneth Castro is the Senior Scientific Advisor (TB) at USAID.
Staggered over five days, the Webinar has the like number of sessions, with each session slated to discuss a broad subject that is particularly relevant to the state. It will also bring under global glare, Kerala’s staunch commitment to provide inclusive, affordable and quality healthcare to its people. The proceedings of the event are expected to catalyze the state government’s efforts to achieve UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The list of speakers and panellists also includes Prof Richard Cash, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, USA, Dr Paul Rutter, Regional Advisor (Health) UNICEF, Dr Thomas R Frieden, CEO, Resolve to Save Lives, Prof Guy B Marks, President, International Union against TB and lung disease, Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India; Dr Mala Rao, Senior Clinical Fellow, Imperial College, London; Dr Roderico H. Ofrin, WHO Representative to India; Sujatha Rao, former Union Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
All the sessions, spanning three hours each, are to be held from 5 pm to 8 pm. The inaugural session on February 17 will delve into ‘Universal Health Coverage: Moving towards Better Health’. The following day, a top panel will brainstorm the issue of ‘COVID-19 Pandemic: Health System Response – Resilience – Preparedness’.
The third session, on February 24, will be on ‘Achieving SDGs Related to MMR & IMR – Dream or Reality?’ Kerala will take pride in the fact that it has now achieved the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) of 7 per 1,000 live births and Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of 30 per 100,000 live births, even surpassing the SDG targets.
The fourth in the series is a session on ‘Meet the SDGs – Beat the NCDs’, which is slated to be held on February 25. The event will conclude on March 4 with experts brainstorming the topic of ‘Moving towards TB Elimination – A Call for Action’.
The session on TB Elimination will witness Divya Sojan, a TB survivor and nurse at AIIMS, sharing her fight with the disease. The panellists will include Prof. Guy B Marks, President, The International Union against TB and Lung Diseases; Dr Teresa Kasaeva, Director, Global TB Program, WHO Geneva; and Dr Suvananda Sahu, Deputy Executive Director, Stop TB Partnership.
Along with the webinar as a part of the series a special session on Trauma Care is organized on 19th Feb in which Dr Sanjeev Bhoi, Prof Emergency Medicine JPNTC AIIMS, Dr Patanjali Nayyar Chairman SERO WHO Delhi, Dr.Vinod Menon Consultant UHCW NHS UK and other eminent experts are participating.
Kerala Health and Family Welfare Minister K K Shailaja said the state’s tremendous strides in comprehensive primary health care has been made possible by robust policy interventions, thrust on community ownerships and sizeable investments in the health sector and social security.
“Kerala is now faced with higher morbidity due to demographic transition and non-communicable diseases. Also, the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic have made it imperative for us to take stock of the health scenario and streamline it by learning from international experiences,” she noted.
“The conference is expected to result in a concise monograph on each theme. The sessions will facilitate dialogues among heads of governments and developmental partners to hammer out future strategies to achieve the SDGs on transforming primary healthcare, maternal and child health, and communicable and non-communicable diseases” Dr Rajan Khobragade Principal Secretary H&FW said.
K K Shailaja will deliver the presidential address while Dr Vishwas Mehta, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Kerala, will make a special address at the webinar, to be attended by policymakers, public health experts, academicians, frontline warriors and other stakeholders from the civil society from across the globe.
The webinar’s relevance has to be seen in the context of the world entering its sixth year of the unfinished 2030 Agenda on 17 SDGs that were formulated by the UN General Assembly in 2015, and are designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”.
