India-Sweden to strengthen ties in healthcare

NEW DELHI - Furthering their collaboration in the field of healthcare, India and Sweden Monday decided to focus on areas like maternal and child health, and alcohol abuse, among others.

Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad met Sweden’s State Secretary of Ministry of Health and Social Affairs Karin Johansson and discussed the collaboration between the two countries.

India and Sweden have decided to further their collaboration in the field of maternal and child health, adolescent health, public health and alcohol policy, medical and pharmaceutical products, public health research and infectious disease control, a health ministry official said.

India and Sweden signed a memorandum of understanding in 2009, after which both sides have had three joint working group meetings - two in India and one in Geneva.

The two countries also decided to collaborate in the field of alcohol abuse. India also flagged the issue of smokeless form of tobacco consumption, peculiar to India in the form of chewing tobacco and sought collaboration from Sweden in this area, the official said.

In the backdrop of the multi-drug resistant NDM-1 virus allegedly originating from India, the two sides also discussed the issues of anti-microbial resistance.