WISH 2022 Second Day Features Panel Discussions, Various Events

WISH 2022

The activities of the second day of World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH 2022) featured a wide range of panel discussions and activities related to the Innovation Corner, Agora Council, Innovators Presentations, Doha Debates Studio at WISH, and other associated events.

The sessions tackled crucial topics, including achieving the promises of precision medicine: the crucial role of vital banks, building better hospitals for the future, supporting the health care and the well-being of the immigrant workforce worldwide, blast injuries in children: challenges and innovative response, filling the gap of supply chain to achieve the ability to resilience, building smart cities to improve the health of people with special needs, Our duty to Care: A global call to action to protect the mental health of health workers, food security and health in a changing environment: Recognizing and mitigating risks, Data-driven response to COVID-19, and strengthening health care for elderly people around the world.

In the session relevant to food security and health, Minister of Health Arab Republic of Egypt Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar reviewed the experience of his country in overcoming COVID-19 crisis and the Russian-Ukrainian war, emphasizing that Egypt neither witnessed any reduction or shortage in food security, nor in health supplies, albeit its population exceeds 100 million, hence it has succeeded in adopting policies that ensure food security for all Egyptians, pointing out that his country launched an initiative to curb the effects of climate change marking the hosting of 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) by Egypt next month, taking into account the increasing impacts of the issue of climate change on food, outlining that Cairo has taken crucial steps in the area of food security after wheat supplies have been affected by the Ukrainian war, specially that Egypt is one of the major importers of wheat, however, the government policies have succeeded to maintain food security through adopting diverse agricultural policies and looking for alternatives for Ukrainian wheat.

Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar underscored his country's keenness to maintain its food security by taking into account the steadfast increase in the number of population which is estimated at two million and 200 thousand people annually, however, the Egyptian government has efficiently succeeded in stabilizing food security as a concept and a realistic practice, outlining the executive plan for the Executive Plan of National Food and Nutrition Strategy 2022-2030 that comes within the framework of Egypt's keenness to achieve food security, improve nutrition and optimize public health for citizens, adding that through a presidential initiative to detect Anemia and Obesity, it has been revealed that a substantial number of students suffer from the two diseases, despite the discrepancy in the social classes and through this executive national plan for food, Egypt proposes the improvement of food in schools and educational institutions, because families are not aware of the difference between food and nutrition, which means that food should have the essential elements of growth.

In the session relevant to the response to COVID-19, the causes of the declining focus on COVID-19 were discussed, because if governments deflect their attention from the pandemic, how can the global community, which is caring for health care, convinces the people to take the necessary care, and takes the appropriate measures for the protection against this infection or any next pandemic.
The discussion highlighted the steps that can be taken in preparation for the pandemics that can emerge in the future.

COVID-19 Technical Lead of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove shared her opinions on the methods countries can apply in preparation for countering the next pandemic, in addition to her vision on how pandemic affect some countries more than others, pointing out that the countries' preparation for countering the future pandemics require that they should be reported and to persistently keep these countries posted on WHO's warnings, and they also require that leaders should work with the relevant organizations such as WHO to deal with a global health emergency, adding that WHO gave candid warnings prior to the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020, indicating that despite the people's willing to return back to normal life as it was before the pandemic, however, the changes that were made should remain and they should be irreversible, she added.

(QNA)