6th BRICS Health Ministers Meeting concluded in New Delhi

6th BRICS Health Ministers Meeting concluded in New Delhi

The two-day 6th BRICS Health Ministers Meet was held from December 16- December 17, 2017 in New Delhi.The meeting was attended by the health delegates of BRICS nation-Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa along with other Senior Officers of representative department.Addressing the

meeting, the Union Health Minister Shri J P Nadda highlighted. The gains made by India in healthcare sector. He said India has achieved substantial improvements in human development index and impressive gains in health in the past several years. Since 1990, under-five mortality rate and maternal mortality ratio have declined by over 60%. New HIV infection among adult population has declined by 57%. Cases of kala-azar has declined by 11% in 2015 from 2014 and 78% since 2006. Leprosy has been eliminated in 84% of all districts.

Basic Features of the Conference

i. Health Minister stressed on adopting innovative strategies to resolve Non-Communicable Diseases that pose danger to our country. A high level meeting on traditional medicinal knowledge was also held.

ii. BRICS countries agreed to cooperate for combating mental disorders, including autism and neuro-development disorders.

iii. They agreed to enhance cooperation amongst the BRICS countries for capacity development of human resources in public health and clinical medicine.

iv. The BRICS also agreed to adopt the TB cooperation plan to create a research consortium on TB, HIV/AIDS and Malaria.

v. The Ministers agreed to support the Global Ministerial Conference on the fight against TB to be held in Moscow in 2017 and the UN High-Level Meeting on TB at United Nations Headquarters in 2018.

vi. The 7thBRICS Health Ministers meeting and Meeting of Senior Health Officials will be held in China in 2017.