Beijing: Union Health Minister Ghulam
Nabi Azad arrived here on Sunday on a four-day visit to attend a
meeting of BRICS Health Ministers to discuss among others
steps for a coordinated approach in the World Health
Organisation.
After his arrival here, Azad drove to Tianjin city to
attend a meeting on population control being organised by
China.
He will take part in the BRICS (Brazil, India, China,
Russia and South Africa) meeting tomorrow which was being
hosted by China to deepen cooperation among the member
countries.
The meeting is expected to discuss steps for promoting
innovation and access to affordable medical products, vaccines
and other health technologies to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals and addressing public health challenges,
officials said.
Brazilian Health Minister Alexandre Padilha has said
that the meeting could help set up a number of institutions to
produce drugs to treat diseases of global concern such as
malaria and HIV/AIDS.
"We may build a series of institutions that can
contribute to the incorporation of technology assessment in
health. It is essential that these countries have a network
at universities to help their governments to determine which
products should be incorporated into national health systems
of these countries," Padilha was quoted as saying by the
Chinese official media.
Padilha said: "We want to have a coordinated approach
to discuss the WHO reform, establishing the role of these
countries in the WHO leadership and strengthening its regional
centres."
This was Azad's second visit to China in a fortnight.
He went to Chinese city of Dalian on June 24 to take part in
the meeting of Partners in Population Development.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, July 10, 2011, 15:36