Tehran hosting G5 meeting on women and family health

According to The Iran Project,G5 member states including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbekistan (as an observer member), and the World Health Organization have attended the meeting.

The participants will examine joint strategies to improve the health of women and mothers. Also, indicators, achievements, challenges, and threats to women's health in physical, mental, and spiritual categories, and the future approaches will be discussed, the Health Ministry website reported.

Addressing the meeting, Health Minister Bahram Einollahi said the main objective is improving regional countries' health. Mother's health is the pillar of a family’s health, which leads to the expansion of health in a country. So, mothers have a central role in the family.

“Making up half of the country's population, mothers can play an essential role in the nutritional and mental health of families by maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Women’s physical, mental, cultural, emotional, and spiritual well-being improves health care. Healthy women make a healthy family and subsequently a healthy society.”

Cooperation for ensuring the health of countries in the region is critical since many pilgrims and tourists travel to these countries, he mentioned.

Einollahi added that the family physician program focusing on family health is being implemented in the country. He highlighted that the International Health Congress will be held in Iran on March 5.

Stating that in Iran, 99 health care services are provided to women free of charge, he went on to say that preserving the dignity of motherhood, the value of childbearing, timely marriage and childbearing, services, and full coverage of free insurance for mothers and infertility treatment are among these services.

For her part, Ensieh Khazali, the vice president for women and family affairs, noted that good measures have been taken to support women during their pregnancy and breastfeeding period, and their children, up to the age of five, are covered by insurance.

In addition to 99 free health care services, telephone counseling and several screenings for women including heart diseases, cancer, and depression are carried out in the country, she added.

Among other measures is the allocation of certain parks to women to maximize their vitality, physical mobility, and mental health, the official noted.

Referring to the significant reduction in the mortality of pregnant mothers as one of the successes of the country, Khazali stated the mortality of pregnant mothers has decreased from 245 per 100,000 before the Islamic Revolution to 23 per 100,000 live births.

Also, infant mortality has decreased from 110 per thousand live births before the Islamic Revolution to 8 per thousand live births, which is part of the country's achievements in improving public health, she concluded.

G5 Forum

Iran initiated the establishment of the G5 in 2005 to promote subregional cooperation in health among the group of four countries – Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan – plus the World Health Organization as the fifth member of this group to provide technical support in improving this collaboration.

Several activities have already been taken under this initiative, with the Islamic Republic of Iran taking responsibility for serving as its secretariat.

The first subregional workshop for G5 countries on health system strengthening was hosted by the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination of Pakistan on November 19–20, 2013 in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Exchanging experiences on issues related to moving towards universal health coverage; developing national roadmaps and strategies for improving service delivery, population coverage, and financial risk protection; assisting each other in health workforce capacity development activities, health system research, national health accounts, and policy development; developing measurable indicators related to three dimensions of universal health coverage were among the goals of this two-day meeting.

Reporter : Editorial of The Iran Project