The head of WHO Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus arrived in Almaty on an unofficial visit, QazMonitor reports. During the visit, the WHO director had several official meetings and paid a visit to his Kazakh relatives.
Tedros Adhanom Gebrejesus visited Kazakhstan's leading medical institute, Kazakh National Medical University (KazNMU) named after S. D. Asfendiyarov today.
The Minister of Health Azhar Giniyat and the Akim of Almaty Yerbolat Dosayev met with Gebreyesus at the medical school. During the meeting, they discussed the development of further cooperation in terms of strengthening the primary health care service.
Our cooperation has been ongoing for 30 years and has become even more active in recent years. As a result of joint actions of Kazakhstan and WHO to promote primary health care over the last 5 years, a number of important documents have been developed and adopted: Astana Declaration on PHC 2018, the PHC 2020 Operational Framework with tools to strengthen PHC, and the PHC Performance Assessment Framework. At the international level, a number of events were held for countries to support the development of the PHC system.
She stressed that Kazakhstan continues to pursue a focused and consistent policy to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and informed about the achievements of the national project "Quality and Accessible Health Care for Every Citizen "Healthy Nation", implemented in 2021.
In his turn, Akim of Almaty Yerbolat Dosayev noted that sustainable growth of Almaty and the whole country is impossible without a developed health care system, especially primary health care.
"In early September, the development plan for Almaty until 2025, which will list out medium-term goals, will be announced. The city will be the best platform for the implementation of best practices," he added.
WHO is focused on a primary health care center that will give the world many opportunities. There will be high-level meetings on universal health insurance coverage in New York in 2023. We wanted Kazakhstan to work with us to play a leading role in aspects of PHC.
Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus is the in-law (or kuda) of the famous Kazakh akyn, an honored worker of Kazakhstan, Jursin Erman.
"Previously, up to this point, I had been to Kazakhstan twice. The first time I went to Almaty was in 2017. On my second visit, there was a meeting with the famous doctor Toregeldy Sharmanov as part of a conference on primary health care. At that time my family had no ties with Kazakhstan. In 2022, we are tied. I am very happy about that. My in-law Daulet Turlykhanov lives here. This means that Kazakhstan is now also my home. Soon my grandson will start speaking. And I have to speak to him in his native language," Tedros told a meeting with the Minister of Health of Kazakhstan, Azhar Giniyat.
Footage showing the WHO Director-General receiving gifts from relatives in Kazakhstan started circulating on social media sites. The chief doctor of the planet was pictured riding a horse and wearing a Kazakh chapan (traditional hat).
On his Twitter page, Tedros even shared his intention to learn the Kazakh language from his granddaughter.
