MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) and the World Health Organization (WHO) discussed medicine access, disease surveillance and pandemic preparedness, along with other health priorities, during a meeting between Health Secretary Edwin Mercado and WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
In a statement posted Thursday, the DOH said that the discussion covered equitable access to medical supplies through regional stockpiles, pooled procurement and stronger regulatory systems, as well as efforts to strengthen universal health care and national health emergency preparedness.
The two officials also discussed disease control, efforts to reach children who have not received routine vaccines, and improvements to hypertension, tobacco control and mental health programs.
Mercado, in a post shared Wednesday, thanked Tedros for raising concerns about health worker migration, medicine access and disease monitoring.
“Thanks DG Tedros for bringing up our concerns on ethical migration of our health workers, pooled procurement for medicine access, reliance process, disease surveillance and post market monitoring,” Mercado said.
