HEALTH MINISTER MEETS U.S. OFFICIALS IN GENEVA

GENEVA, May 19 ( Saba) – Minister of Public Health and Population Abdul-Karim Rase'a met on Tuesday in Geneva with Secretary of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference Rashad Hussain.

The meeting held on the sidelines of the 63rd session of the World Health Assembly, the two U.S. officials reviewed the initiative of President Barak Obama for supporting Islamic countries to eradicate child paralysis and meet the third millennium goals, specifically the fourth and fifth goals concerning the child and maternal mortalities as well as improving immunization and control of diseases.

Rasa'a hailed the initiative, pointing to its impacts in Yemen particularly on child paralysis.

The World Health Organization announced last year that Yemen was free of the disease.

He also touched upon the need of Yemen for further support to improve healthcare services and keep itself free of the disease through conducting more immunization campaigns.

Moreover, he reviewed achievements Yemen has made including an 87 per cent increase in the coverage of immunization in 2009 as well as decreased rates of patients with measles to 3 cases in 2008.

On the millennium goals, the minister pointed to the decrease in child and maternal mortalities from 102 cases to 78 cases per a thousand children. He also affirmed that Yemen is seeking to limit child mortalities by 2015 with support from the International Vaccine Coalition.

MB/FR