Bangladesh Prime Minister and Bill Gates speak at the 64th World Health Assembly
The 64th World Health Assembly opened this week at the World Health Organisation (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Health Assembly will discuss specific health topics such as child health, chronic diseases, malaria and maternal health, and so far has heard speeches from Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda gates Foundation and Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
In his speech to the assembly, Bill Gates called for increased political and financial support for vaccines so that "by 2020, we can prevent 10 million deaths". He declared this decade the ‘Decade of Vaccines’, highlighting that political momentum has now allowed for immunisation programmes to be firmly placed on the agenda. “I’m excited that global health leaders are now collaborating to put a specific global vaccine action plan in place. The success of that plan will be a blueprint for the success of the Decade of Vaccines. It will depend on us to do our best work” Gates said.
Proclaiming ‘health is wealth’, Mrs Sheikh Hasina noted the health and development targets she has set for Bangladesh to become a middle-income nation within the next ten years. The prime minister argued for a renewed commitment to ‘Health for All’ as an essential precondition to transforming people as human assets. Indeed, this “can be attained only through collective actions of governments, health professionals, scientific community, private sector and the international community” Mrs Hasina stressed.
The World Health Assembly will continue on until 24 May.
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Speeches: Bill Gates | Sheikh Hasina
