The World Health Organization (WHO) will send a commission of experts to Colombia in the next few days to accompany the discussion of health reformannounced this Wednesday the director of the international organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a meeting with the president Gustavo Petro.
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At the meeting, held within the framework of the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland)the Colombian president also asked to discuss the issue of patents and technology transfer in matters of Health.
According to the information shared, the director of the WHO, who was accompanied by the director of Health and Multilateral Alliances from the same organization, Gaudenz Silberschmidt, invited the Colombian head of state to participate in the 76th World Health Assembly to be held next May in Geneva.
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“How to achieve a system that prioritizes prevention and that stops treating basic medicines for disease prevention as merchandise subject to profit”the president wrote Petro in your account Twitterclarifying that they were part of the issues discussed with the director of the United Nations.
It is necessary to remember that health reform It is one of the flags of the Government of Petro, which seeks to change, among other things, the model of the Health Promotion Companies (EPS), designated as duty millionaires sums to the Colombian State.
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Is reform headed by the Minister of Health, Carolina Corcho, has yet to go through the Congress of the Republic for your discussion.
Among the points that have been addressed for the possible reform are primary health care (APS); dignifying workers in the sector; a transparent public information system; overcoming financial intermediation of the system and a science, technology and innovation policy.
On the other hand, within their participation in the event multilateralthe WHO also announced a plan for the acceleration of vaccines against tuberculosis, which claims the lives of more than one and a half million people each year, according to official figures.
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This initiative will be led by the Vaccine Acceleration Council against Tuberculosisentity that will facilitate “licensing and use of effective innovative tuberculosis vaccines by driving high-level alignment between funders, global agencies, governments and end users”.
At present, only the vaccine is authorized BCG against tuberculosis, which, although it offers moderate efficacy in prevention in infants and children; does not adequately protect teenagers and adults, 90% of transmission cases in the world.
“One of the most important lessons from the pandemic response is that interventions can be delivered quickly if they are prioritized,” stated Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
A parallel healthcare reform by Congress?
The movement patients Colombia reported a proposal for health reform to contribute to the debate on the initiative that is leading the Government in the legislature that begins this year.
Under the name ‘Model Bill of Health for Life’, the proposal aims to strengthen the General System of Social Security in Health with a vision focused on users.
In this sense, among the areas promoted by the initiative to improve the Health is to strengthen the governance and stewardship of the entire system; promote a new institutional dialogue, among others.
The proposed text is available for comments on the page Web of the institution until next Tuesday, January 24.
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