Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has pledged the organization’s continued support to help Ghana achieve substantial growth in the health sector.
He made the pledge when the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, visited him in Geneva, Switzerland.
The WHO Director-General commended Ghana for her impressive COVID-19 response while working to improve other health indicators which he attributed to solid leadership.
Dr. Ghebreyesus urged Mr Agyeman-Manu and the government to be steadfast in their efforts to strengthen the health sector and turn it into a hub for high-quality healthcare delivery.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu in turn congratulated the WHO Director-General on his re-election on behalf of President Akufo-Addo and assured him of Ghana’s support.
He expressed gratitude for the significant support Ghana received during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other support programmes, from WHO during the Director General’s first time in office.
He said the country being the first recipient of Covid-19 Vaccines in Africa; health officers participating in the “Leadership Program for Health Transformation Agenda,” the establishment of the Special Institute on Mental Health, the implementation of the NORAD Initiative on Noncommunicable Diseases, and the first Strategic Dialogue on NCDs hosted in Ghana alongside Norway and Germany are a few of the benefits derived from WHO under Dr. Ghebreyesus’ leadership.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu appealed to the Director-General to help Ghana prepare towards a possible outbreak of monkeypox.
Budgetary support for the relocation of the UN hospital at Burma Camp to a more accessible location, as well as the supply of basic testing tools to enable health workers to examine basic vital statistics such as blood pressure and sugar levels, were among the requests made to the Director General.
He also requested that Ghana be considered for inclusion in the St. Jude Initiative on childhood cancers, as well as an expanded cancer programme in Ghana.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri