KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 — Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam will be leading Malaysia’s delegation to the 68th Session of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Committee for the Western Pacific, from tomorrow until October 13 in Brisbane, Australia.

Dr Subramaniam, who is also the outgoing chairman of the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific, is scheduled to deliver the welcoming address at the session’s opening ceremony and will preside over the committee until the election of a new chairman.

"The minister will also share the success stories of Malaysia’s healthcare, including on medication safety strategies, during the regional launch of the Third Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medications Without Harm on October 10,” said the Health Ministry in a statement today.

During the 68th Session, the minister will call for the member states’ commitment to continuously develop sustainable and high-performing health systems to advance the health and well-being of the people of the Western Pacific region.

The statement said the meeting would deliberate on the main health agenda items, namely measles and rubella elimination; protecting children from the harmful impact of food marketing; health promotion in the Sustainable Development Goals; triple elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis; transitioning to integrated financing of priority public health services; and food safety.

The event involves health officials and experts from 37 member nations and Western Pacific territories, who meet annually to set policies and approve budgets and programmes of work.

The Western Pacific region, one of the six regions of WHO, is home to approximately 1.8 billion people, more than a quarter of the world’s population. — Bernama