In the general debate, Federal Health Minister Hermann Gröhe spoke about the joint efforts to strengthen the healthcare system worldwide. Federal Minister Gröhe will then open the side event for the “Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations” (CEPI), which Germany is organizing together with Norway and Rwanda as part of the WHA. CEPI is an international public-private partnership of states, foundations and companies in the pharmaceutical industry whose goal is to develop vaccines for particularly dangerous pathogens. Germany supports CEPI with 10 million euros from the funds of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Federal Health Minister Hermann Gröhe also attended a meeting of the “Alliance of Champions”. The alliance has set itself the goal of drawing more attention to the topic of antibiotic resistance and giving it greater political importance.
With the adoption of the WHO Global Action Plan in 2015, the WHO member states committed themselves to developing national action plans. Germany has taken the lead here with the German Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy (DART 2020) and supports the implementation of the Global Action Plan. Federal Minister Gröhe will present an interim report on the implementation of the DART 2020 at the WHA.
The 70th World Health Assembly will take place in Geneva from May 22nd to 31st. It is the highest decision-making body of the 194 member states of the WHO. At this year’s World Health Assembly, more than 4,000 delegates debated a record 81 agenda items based on 69 reports.