Tag: health emergency

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

We Must Be Ready To Prevent, Prepare, Respond To Next Health Emergency: Modi At G-20

By LokMarg

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged the citizens to be ready to prevent, prepare and respond to the next health emergency. 

In a video message at the G20 Health Ministers meeting being held in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar, PM Modi said, “This is especially important in today’s interconnected world. As we saw during the pandemic, health issues in one part of the world can affect all other parts of the world in a very short time.”

The G20 Health Ministers’ meeting under India’s G20 Presidency is being held in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar from August 17-19. Notably, India assumed the presidency of the G20 on 1 December 2022. 

While explaining the importance of holistic health, he said that the global celebration of the International Day of Yoga is a testament to the universal desire for holistic health. 

He further noted that Gujarat is an important step in establishing the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Center for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar.

“The holding of the WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine, along with the G20 Health Ministers meeting, will intensify efforts to harness its potential. It should be our joint effort to build a global repository for traditional medicine,” he added.  

PM Modi further said that health and the environment are organically linked. He added that clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient nutrition, and secure shelter are major factors of health.

“The steps taken to address the threat of Anti-Microbial Resistance are also commendable. AMR is a grave risk to global public health and all pharmaceutical advancements so far. I am also glad that the G20 Health Working Group has prioritized ‘One Health’.”

He emphasized that the vision of ”One Earth, One Health” envisages good health for the entire ecosystem, including humans, animals, plants and the environment. “This integrated view carries Gandhiji’s message of not leaving anyone behind,” he said. 

Additionally, he stressed the digital solutions and technological innovations to make our efforts equitable and inclusive. Nowadays, people from far and wide can receive quality care through tele-medicine. 

“India’s national platform, e-Sanjeevani, has facilitated 140 million telehealth consultations to date. India’s COWIN platform successfully facilitated the largest vaccination drive in human history. It managed the delivery of more than 2.4 billion vaccine doses and the real-time availability of globally verifiable vaccination certificates,” he said. 

Such global initiatives on digital health will bring together various digital health initiatives on a common platform. 

“This initiative will allow countries in the Global South to close the gap in healthcare delivery. It will take us one step closer to our goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage,” PM Modi added. (ANI)

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Afghanistan Faces Health Emergency As Pneumonia Cases Rise

By LokMarg

Amid the perceived humanitarian crisis that has gripped Afghanistan since the Taliban’s takeover last year, there has been a steep rise in pneumonia cases, the Tolo News reported.

Quoting doctors at the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital (IGCH) in Kabul, the Tolo News added that more than 30 pneumonia cases are being reported at the hospital every day.

According to the report, the pneumonia outbreak is being attributed to poor hygiene, polluted air, and extremely cold temperatures with the onset of winter.

Quoting officials in the Ministry of Public Health in Afghanistan, the Tolo News further reported that more than 9,60,000 pneumonia cases have been reported across the country over the past 11 months, with the majority of patients being children.

Speaking to Tolo News, Saifullah Abasin, a doctor, said 30 to 50 pneumonia patients are hospitalised in Afghanistan every day.

He added that 30 percent of the patients are brought to hospitals in critical condition as they have to make a long and arduous journey from the remote corners of the country.

The parents of a newborn told Tolo News that their child has been under treatment at the IGCH for pneumonia for over a week.

Speaking to the Afgha television news channel, Roya, the child’s mother, said, “He has been battling pneumonia for six days now. I initially got him admitted to a private hospital and bought lots of medicines for him. However, I could only keep him in the private hospital for one night as his conditioned worsened and I was asked to shift my child to the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital.”

The parents of another stricken child told Tolo News that the reason why their son caught pneumonia was that they did not have a room heater at home.

This is not Afghanistan’s first brush with a public health emergency under the Taliban. Recently, more than 600 people were found to be infected with a cholera-like enteric disease in the country. The outbreak left 15 people dead.

In August, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had reported that Afghanistan was battling multiple disease outbreaks, including Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD), measles, Congo fever, dengue fever, and Covid-19.

Over 19,050 confirmed AWD cases were reported in various provinces across Afghanistan, especially Kabul, Paktia, Khost, Paktika, Jawzjan Ghazni, Kandahar, and Zabul.

Also, as per a report, as many as 64,654 cases of measles were also reported across Afghanistan. (ANI)

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