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News ID: 45482
Publish Date : 20 October 2017 - 21:31

Iran Calls on WHO to Prioritize Comprehensive Health Plan




TEHRAN (FNA) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a message to the World Health Organization called on all WHO member-states to put the comprehensive health plan on top of their agenda.
"Iran’s full preparation to share experiences with all countries, and reciprocally use world knowledge and experience to promote people’s health," President Rouhani wrote in his message read out by Iran's Deputy Health Minister Baqer Larijani at the WHO World Conference on Non-Communicable Diseases in Uruguay on Friday.
Rouhani also emphasized that he was deeply confident that giving priority to health by the heads of state is necessary to create effective policies in moving towards a vibrant society.
The full text of Rouhani's message to the World Conference on Non-communicable Diseases is as follows:
In the name of God
Your Excellency Mr. Vلzquez,
President of Uruguay,
Honorable Heads of States,
Honorable World Health Ministers,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Iranian people, I would like to extend my gratitude to the important summit of the ‘Non-communicable Diseases and Sustainable Development: Policy Coherence’ hosted by Uruguay, in partnership with the World Health Organization.
Today, the major component of the factors affecting the health of citizens outside the traditional boundaries of public and private institutions that have a direct impact on health, including the Ministry of Health, will be decided upon and operationalized. Although significant advancements in information technology, on the one hand, and the fundamental change in the lifestyle of people around the world, progressive migration, widespread urbanization process and its related components, on the other, have brought comfort and, in some cases, an increase in life expectancy, they have had a significant negative impact on human health. Also, the threat to global peace and the increasing number of refugees, as well as human-induced human catastrophes, including in Myanmar, Syria and Yemen, have also threatened the health of citizens and the host countries with great challenges.
Healthy air, adequate and safe food, adequate housing, decent job opportunities and healthy living environments are all essential components of human health, in which the role of governments in adopting balanced and mutually supportive policies for the realization of comprehensive health and prosperity of citizens in all these dimensions is fundamental. In the meantime, the fight against non-communicable diseases and their associated risk factors, as the most serious preventable factor for early mortality of human societies, requires the governments to pay serious attention to decision-making and policy-making so that sustainable development can be realized.
I believe that health, on the one hand, is a social matter and, on the other, is individual responsibility. If governments do not seriously address the social determinants of health and empowerment of citizens in promoting their accountability and responsiveness, they will face the heavy burden of severe diseases, in particular non-communicable ones, and increased costs, which will also be a burden on the shoulder of governments in implementation of their development programs and will result in a defective cycle of reduced human development and lower productivity.