Harsh Vardhan discusses bilateral health cooperation including COVID-19 management with Australian counterpart

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday held a virtual interaction with his Australian counterpart Gregory Andrew Hunt and discussed bilateral health cooperation.

At the outset, Vardhan expressed deep admiration for Hunt for his organisation of charity events like a five-kilometer run for children suffering from autism and raising awareness on juvenile diabetes.

Speaking on the need to work together, Vardhan outlined that “while Australia has one of the best healthcare systems of the developed world, healthcare in India is one of the fastest-growing sectors and is expected to hit a USD 275 billion mark in the next 10 years. India’s domestic demand is expected to engine the growth regardless of any turbulence in the global economy.

“India also offers vast opportunities in research and development and medical tourism. India’s traditional holistic medical systems like Ayurveda and Yoga can help Australia curb obesity and related diseases, he said.

The Minister elaborated on ‘health as a social movement’ approach of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “India’s Universal Healthcare Coverage (under Ayushman Bharat) covers a massive 100 million families. 10 million individuals have benefitted in the last year alone. India is committed to eliminating TB by the year 2025. India has also undertaken efforts for mass screening of non-communicable diseases like hypertension, cancer of breast, lung, throat, and mouth.”

“India has also made strides in implementing the Digital Health Blueprint to modernise the health sector and enable streamlined delivery of services to the last citizen, affordable medicines that treat cancer and cardio-vascular ailments and cardiac implants are made available to the poorest of the poor under the (Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment (AMRIT) programme,” he added. He said that the Prime Minister’s “Whole of Government” perspective enabled financial inclusion of 400 million people and transformed their access to healthcare.

Speaking on the trust that Modi espouses in the international community, the Australian Health Minister said that his country’s Universal Telemedicine has helped tackle 19 million cases, so far. “Its focus on health infrastructure through public and private hospitals and approach on mental health issues are models worth emulating,” he stated.

Acknowledging India’s huge role in supplying inexpensive generic drugs supplying 60 percent of the world’s medicine, he expanded on how India could help Australia in researching new medicines for rare diseases using genomics and stem cell technology.

The Health Ministers of both countries agreed to continue to jointly work in the area of health and other common interests.
This interaction is in the backdrop of the MoU signed by India and Australia on April 10 on co-operation in the field of health and medicine.

The MoU covers areas of mutual interest like the management of communicable diseases like malaria and tuberculosis, mental health and non-communicable diseases, antimicrobial resistance, regulation of pharmaceuticals, vaccines and medical devices and digitisation of health infrastructure. It also covers response to public health emergencies like the present COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: ANI