BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Aug. 23: Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said today that Nepal like other South East Asian countries is faced with the challenge of delivering health facilities to the rural populace living in the remote parts of the country.

“Advancement in science and technology has certainly resulted in better health services for those who can afford to pay for them, but those services are so expensive that they are beyond the reach of many people especially in the rural areas,” Koirala said.

Koirala was addressing the eighteenth meeting of the Ministers of Health, countries of WHO South-East Region here today.

The three point agenda of the meeting is to rationalise WHO resources to strengthen inter-country collaboration, discuss health sector reforms in the line of identifying the issues and opportunities and share the lessons learnt from health programmes to address menace of HIV/AIDS.

Koirala said that His Majesty’s Government was spending a substantial amount of its national budget on the health sector.

“The doctor patient ratio in Nepal is still not satisfactory and like in many south and south-east Asian countries, our challenge in Nepal is how to send the doctors to the rural areas where they are needed most,” Koirala said.

He said the government in Nepal looks forward to address issues of public health in a holistic manner as a social and economic proposition.

Health Minister Ram Baran Yadav said nearly 1.5 billion people, representing one-fourth of humanity live in the WHO South-East Asia Region though the ten member states have only five per cent of the world’s land area.

“The incomes of our people are low and about 40 per cent of the world’s poor live in our region. The process of development and improving the health of our people is a great challenge to us,” Dr. Yadav said.

He said that HMG had been according high priority to strengthen district health system to support safe motherhood and nutrition programmes, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, diarrhoeal and respiratory diseases.

Malaria, Kala-azar and Japanese Encephalitis have also been assigned priority specially to reduce infant mortality and increase life expectancy. To further strengthen these efforts the government of Nepal hopes to continue to receive support from WHO and other development partners, Dr. Yadav said.

Dr. Uton Muchtar Rafei, WHO Regional Director for South East Asian Region said humanity had gained from unprecedented