New Delhi, Sept 08: India today emphasised the need for a terror-free world for the health and prosperity of people across the globe and said the world cannot afford to allocate more and more resources towards fighting terrorism. "We must realise that health and prosperity can only be enjoyed in a terror-free world. Resources are scarce and the world today cannot afford to devote more and more resources towards fighting terrorism," Health Minister Sushma Swaraj said here at the inauguration of the 21st meeting of health ministers of South-East Asia.

"Resources allocated to fight terror are bound to be at the cost of resources which could otherwise be committed for achieving our objective of `health for all'," she said.

Stressing the need for converging of all the nations in meeting public health challenges, Swaraj said outbreak of dreaded Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) brought to the centre stage irrelevance of geographical and political boundaries for disease control.

"Sars played havoc with many economies, it brought to the Centre stage the impact of globalisation....More important, Sars re-affirmed our belief that public health challenges have to be fought together by all countries," she said.

A strong system of disease surveillance in every country appears to be essential not only for timely detection and control of the spread of disease, but also for providing strategic inputs and direction for development of the health care infrastructure, she said.
Bureau Report