Dr. Rajitha Senaratne addresses World Health Assembly in Geneva

Minister of Health and Indigenous Medicine Dr. Rajitha Senaratne addressed the 68th World Health Assembly held in Geneva on 19 May and highlighted the progress Sri Lanka has made in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and universal health coverage, particularly with respect to maternal and child health and the control of communicable diseases.

Highlighting the health scenario in the country, he said that under the guidance of President Maithripala Sirisena, the country was poised to enter a new phase of health development and pointed out that the health burden of the country was now moving more towards non communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular, respiratory neoplasm and diabetes, which account to over 70% of deaths.

Addressing the Assembly, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Angela Merkel, praised the role of the WHO and said: “The WHO is the only international organisation that has universal political legitimacy on global health issues.”

The meeting was also addressed by Jagat Prakash Nadda, President WHA, Dr. Margaret Chan, DG/WHO and a large number of health ministers from member countries from all over the world.