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Prioritization of occupational health and safety discussed in tripartite meeting of WHO, ILO and the Iranian health and labour ministries
Thursday, 19 May 2022 – Occupational health and safety (OHS) and multilateral collaboration at the regional and country level were discussed during a tripartite meeting between the World Health Organization (WHO) country office in the Islamic Republic of Iran, WHO’s regional Centre for Environmental Health Action (CEHA), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education and Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare, held in Amman, Jordan, on 18 May 2022.
Part of a three-day high-level mission from Islamic Republic of Iran to Jordan, the tripartite meeting welcomed the participation of representatives from the ILO, including Dr Yuka Ujita, an occupational safety and health specialist based in Bangkok, Thailand, and Dr Halshka Graczyk, a technical specialist on occupational safety and health based in Geneva, Switzerland, who participated virtually.
Expressing their readiness to join forces with WHO to enhance the well-being and health of employees in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the ILO representatives offered support and guidance in sharing experiences and developing policies.
The Center of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, led by Director-General, Dr Jaffar Jandaghi, and representatives from the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare, also joined the meeting virtually to discuss the theory and practice of OHS rules and regulations in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the responsibilities of both ministries in safeguarding the workforce and workplaces across the nation.
As discussed at the meeting, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education is responsible for occupational health and the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare is responsible for occupational safety in workplaces, and they come together in a joint inter-ministerial and inter-sectoral committee of national technical officers and decision-makers.
A host of technical areas were discussed and consensus was reached on the following areas for further collaboration among ministries and organizations:
• expansion of networking and collaboration among the parties
• sharing and adopting newly-updated guidelines, regulations and threshold standards
• training and capacity-building for national staff
• an OHS strategy for small-scale and private sector industries and workplaces.
The meeting concluded with all the parties agreeing to a joint mission by CEHA and ILO to the Islamic Republic of Iran in the near future for further technical discussions and action plan development
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December polio vaccination begins
KABUL, 13 December 2021 - The fourth round of a national polio immunization campaign begins this week (13–16 December 2021), and will be synchronized with Pakistan to improve cross-border polio eradication efforts. The campaign targets 9.9 million children aged 0–59 months across the country and is scheduled to start later this month in some parts of the country, including in the south and east, and in the provinces of Paktia and Ghazni in the south-east, Ghor in the west, and Balkh in the north.
This is the second campaign this year to reach children in areas previously inaccessible to the polio programme. A campaign in November 2021 delivered polio vaccinations to 8.5 million children under the age of five, including 2.4 million children who were vaccinated for the first time in over three years.
“We are intensifying efforts to reach the maximum number of children across the country, but we need sustained access to rapidly build immunity against polio, especially in areas we have not been able to reach in the last few years,” said Dr Dapeng Luo, WHO Representative in Afghanistan. “The November campaign was a massive leap forward and the upcoming campaign will further strengthen the progress we are making. Six more campaigns are planned for 2022 and we must ensure they are implemented in a timely fashion and reach all children,” he said.
To date, 2021 has been the year with the lowest polio transmission in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. This provides a great opportunity to interrupt transmission of wild poliovirus and achieve eradication.
Four wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases have been reported in the country so far this year. The first WPV1 case of 2021 was reported in January 2021 from Ghazni province in the south-east of the country, while the other three cases were reported in October and November from Kunduz province in the north-east.
The polio programme has put urgent measures in place to boost immunity in Kunduz and other high-risk areas to stop the polio outbreak and protect children from this crippling but preventable disease.
“Immunization is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions, saving children’s lives and contributing to a better future for Afghan children,” said Alice Akunga, UNICEF Representative a.i. “We must intensify our efforts to reach all children, especially those in greatest need, in order to bring polio disease under control,” she said.
Frontline workers are the pillar of successful vaccination drives. The polio programme is calling on all leaders, stakeholders and communities to ensure the safety of all frontline workers for the successful implementation of the campaign.
