SAARC health ministers

‘Male’ Declaration’, including ten main issues, has been passed at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) health ministers’ meeting held at Paradise Island Resort.

The issues in the declaration were to include health-related courses in the SAARC University in India; to work out a system through which SAARC countries can collaborate in emergency situations; to establish a laboratory at the SAARC TB and HIV Centre in Nepal; to develop a regional strategy to control contagious illnesses; to collaborate in training personnel; and to hold SAARC health ministers meeting annually.

Minister of Health Ahmed Jamsheed said that four papers were presented at the meeting, all of which were discussed and passed by the SAARC health ministers.

The papers were one on sewerage systems, one on food, one on the eradication of rabies, and one on developing human resources in the health sector.

Jamsheed said that the meeting was beneficial to the Maldives.

SAARC health ministers’ meeting was announced by the government among the SAARC activities for the year. This meeting was organized by Maldives following the end of the seventeenth SAARC Summit.