Egypt's Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel Ghaffar witnessed on Sunday the opening of the third international conference of the Arab Society for Public Health in Cairo, under the slogan "Transformation of the Health Sector after Covid-19.. Public Health Challenges and Opportunities". During his speech, the Minister of Health and Population welcomed the delegations participating in the conference, appreciating the efforts of Salman Rawaf, the President of the Arab Society for Public Health and President of the Conference, to organize this important event, which includes a group of experts in the field of public health, a number of former health ministers in Arab countries, and representatives of international health organizations. Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, the official spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population, explained that the minister pointed out that the Coronavirus pandemic showed the need to pay attention to public health, take care of ways to combat diseases and epidemics, and improve the healthy life of citizens, adding that the pandemic contributed to creating flexible health systems that are able to adapt and confront any epidemics or health challenges. Abdel Ghaffar said that the minister reviewed the Egyptian experience in improving public health indicators for citizens, through a package of presidential initiatives that began in 2018 under the slogan "100 million health" and includes 12 presidential initiatives that were launched based on a national survey of various diseases related to public health. He added that after three years of the Coronavirus pandemic, the presidential initiatives were a key factor in overcoming the Coronavirus pandemic, which was praised by a number of international organizations. Moreover, the Health Minister stressed the need to pay attention to primary health care services provided to citizens, which is an important part of supporting public health, referring to the initiative of the president of the republic to develop primary care units, which target 5,400 units and medical centres, noting the start with 251 units, and from the implementation of the initiative is expected to be completed in 1,000 units by the end of 2023.
