WHO lauds Nepal’s prioritisation of health in the national budget

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is on an official visit to Nepal, lauded the country's achievements in the health sector, including the allocation of a good amount of budget for health services. 

Ghebreyesus called on President Bidya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba earlier today.

The President highlighted the role of multisectoral collaboration to improve health issues, while the Director-General congratulated Nepal for recognising health as a basic human right in its constitution. 

Nepal's Foreign Ministry Statement lauded Nepal’s achievement in reducing maternal and child mortality and for being a pioneer in a number of health initiatives, including a nation-wide new vaccine campaign against typhoid in the routine immunisation programme, the first of its kind in the South East Asia Region of WHO immunisation. 

While emphasising the cooperation of WHO in further bolstering health services in Nepal, the Prime Minister praised the effective leadership of WHO during the COVID-19 pandemic and expressed his hope for more collaboration between Nepal and WHO in the days to come. 

"Nepal is the first country in the S.E Asia Region to introduce the typhoid conjugate vaccine into its national immunisation program. 

Today, WHO DG and RD Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh visited a vaccine site to observe the ongoing campaign which aims to vaccinate 7.5 million children, "WHO Nepal said in a tweet. 

Later in the day, Ghebreyesus visited Patan Secondary School to observe the ongoing campaign for typhoid vaccination. He also paid a visit to the National Public Health Laboratory and Teku Hospital.

The Director-General arrived in Kathmandu on Thursday and held a meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Narayan Khadka. 

Another statement from the Foreign Ministry said, "The Foreign Minister appreciated the leadership of WHO during the COVID pandemic and expressed thanks to the Director-General for his unfailing support of Nepal during the COVID crisis, including through vaccine support."

He also thanked the Director-General for decades of cooperation from WHO with Nepal in the prevention and control of diseases, the provision of vaccines and technical assistance in critical areas of public health.