“Health Minister” highlights Kuwait’s leading role among nations in adopting ‘Papilloma Vaccine’

• Kuwait witnessed remarkable progress in all the medical fields, especially in the field of public health.

The Minister of Health, Dr. Ahmed Al-Awadi, confirmed about the Ministry’s keenness to enhance prevention of infectious diseases through immunization, including introduction of vaccine against human Papilloma, to prevent multiple types of cancers.

The Minister categorically emphasized how Kuwait is at the forefront of countries that have adopted ‘Papilloma Vaccine’ to maintain the health of Kuwaiti society.

Al-Awadi, in his opening speech delivered on Monday, during the Second Kuwait Public Health Conference, reflected upon the various ‘Public Health Challenges and Proposed Solutions’ organized by the Ministry’s Public Health Department, to discuss the most important issues affecting the health of individuals and society as well.

Focusing further, Al-Awadi said that “the vaccination schedule has been updated with the aim of enhancing the prevention of infectious and dangerous diseases to keep pace with the developments witnessed by developed countries in this vital field”.

Moreover, the Minister also added that recent epidemics such as the novel Corona virus pandemic (COVID-19), have shown the importance of early preparedness and coordination between countries to combat these diseases, which do not know geographical boundaries, stressing the importance of early diagnosis and treatment and the significance of scientific research and international cooperation.

He also apprised about the need to develop strategies to protect the health of travelers, and reduce the spread of diseases across borders. As well as provide medical advice and simultaneously develop health protocols that keep pace with changing challenges.

Al-Awadi pointed out that technology and innovation today, plays a key role in improving health care services and promoting rapid response to health crises, providing unprecedented opportunities to develop effective health surveillance systems, and provide customized health care that meets the needs of individuals and communities, in a much better manner.

On a similar note, Minister Al-Awadi explained that the efforts made during the past eight years in combating winter respiratory diseases, has led to a significant decrease in infection rates and also decrease in mortality rates, which is more than half, pointing out that the Ministry has vaccinated more than two million citizens and residents, against influenza and pneumonia.

On the other hand, The Director of the Public Health Department at the Ministry of Health, Dr Fahad Al-Ghamlas, who as the President of the Conference, in his speech said that “the health crises witnessed by the world during the previous decades, such as the emergence of new types of epidemics, pandemics and the transmission of diseases from animals to humans, highlighted the importance of the public health sector and its vital role in maintaining the health of society”.

Al-Ghamlas added that public health is not limited to the prevention of infectious diseases only, but are also under its responsibilities, the areas closely related to the health of society, such as environmental health and environmental sanitation.

Considering various reformative measures by Kuwait, Dr. Al-Ghamlas stated that Kuwait witnessed remarkable progress in all medical fields, especially in the field of public health, adding that the Public Health Department considered the general orientation of the state, so it adopted a decentralization system in providing services to the public in health areas. These included expanding the establishment of expatriate labor examination centers and establishing traveler health clinics.

Explaining further, Al-Ghamlas mentioned that the future management plan includes; expanding the screening services of food traders and other categories working in this field, including citizens and others in health areas, which is in addition to increasing the number of Tuberculosis control centers.

What’s more, he also elaborated upon how the administration puts its top priority on the digitization of services provided to the public, to facilitate reviewers in cooperation with the concerned authorities, saying that a system has been developed to book appointments digitally, which are meant to conduct examinations of expatriate workers, food traders and other categories.

Al-Ghamlas indicated that it has become possible to obtain health fitness certificates and know the results through the unified government application for electronic services (Sahl), as well as providing electronic vaccination certificates on the website of the Ministry of Health.

On a concluding note, Dr Fahad Al-Ghamlas stressed the Department’s quest to expand the field of digitizing the services provided, and to keep pace with the latest scientific developments in cooperation with regional and international organizations, to develop the services provided through continuous training of employees, and the adoption of modern protocols and programs that fall under the umbrella of the Department’s specializations.