TEHRAN – Tehran will host the 66th session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean on October 14 to 17.

Health ministers and high-level representatives of the 22 countries and territories of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, partner organizations and civil society, are scheduled to take part in the summit.

Key technical health issues which will be discussed during the event include ending preventable newborn, child and adolescent deaths, strengthening nursing and midwifery as well as hospital sector, developing national institutional capacity for health policy-making and accelerating regional implementation of the UN Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases.

The 4-day event will also include progress reports on eradication of poliomyelitis; health, environment and climate change; civil registration and vital statistics systems; implementation of the Eastern Mediterranean vaccine action plan and regional malaria action plan; mental health care; implementation of the regional framework on cancer prevention and control; and implementation of the global action plan on antimicrobial resistance.

Mohsen Asadi Lari, an official with the Ministry of Health, said that the summit is one the most important events in the field of health, IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.

WHO Representative in Tehran Christoph Hamelmann and representatives of Eastern Mediterranean countries including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen will attend the summit, he noted.

He went on to say that conferences and visits will be also held to introduce the latest achievements of the country's health sector.

Iran will be hosting this important regional summit for the fourth time.

The last edition of the event was held in Khartoum, Sudan, October 2018.

FB/MG