Crisis preparedness, unbiased availability of healthcare services, and combating epidemics such as Ebola, call for international cooperation and collaboration, said Health Minister Hassan Hashemi, addressing the inauguration of the 68th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, as the representative of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries.
Access to the highest standards of healthcare is the right of every human being regardless of religion, race, class or political orientation, he stressed. The assembly will conclude on May 26.
“The NAM countries want urgent measures against policies that interfere with free circulation of medical technologies,” Hashemi said, reports Khabaronline.
The World Health Assembly is attended by delegates from the World Health Organization (WHO) member states as well as representatives from agencies, organizations, foundations and other groups that contribute to improving public health. More than 3000 delegates from 194 WHO member states – including a large proportion of the world’s health ministers - are expected to attend the meet.
Farahnaz Rafe’e, chief of the Volunteer Organization of Red Crescent Society (VORCS) and Holmfridur Gardarsdottir, a delegate of the International Committee of Red Crescent (ICRC), expressed interest to further collaborate with the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), Hashemi said.
Complimenting the activities of the VORC, he said, collaboration between ICRC and IRCS had commenced in the previous year with the aim of improving the plight of immigrants in Golshahr, Mashhad, in Khorasan Razavi Province. ICRC is funding a healthcare plan executed through the IRCS which seeks to provide services to more than 80% of the immigrants, majority of whom are from Afghanistan, IRNA reports.
