A meeting has been co-hosted by Vietnam and Australia on World MalariaDay (April 25) in Geneva, Switzerland to draw international attention totheir joint initiative on combating malaria in the Asian Pacific OceanRegion.

The initiative was first introduced andhailed at the East Asia Summit (EAS) after receiving support fromVietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Australian counterpartTony Abbott.

The Geneva event saw the participationof some 20 health care delegations from the region and the Organisationof Economic Cooperation Development (OECD). Experts from the GlobalFund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) and representatives fromthe World Health Organisation (WHO) were also in attendance, amongothers.

During the event, Vietnamese Ambassador toGeneva Nguyen Trung Thanh made clear the importance of cooperation amongnations in fighting malaria.

He called for moreactive participation from Asian Pacific nations, WHO experts, andsponsors in preventing high risks at the border areas of several nationsin the region.

Meanwhile, the Australian Ambassadorreviewed the malaria situation in the region, briefed participants onthe Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Aliance (APLMA) and highlighted SriLanka’s successful experience in fighting the disease.

Participants discussed the elimination of malaria in the Mekong RiverSubregion as an urgent priority of the health sector in the AsiaPacific region.

The regional objective to be malaria-free by 2030 has been approved at the 9 th EAS in Myanmar.-VNA