KUALA LUMPUR: Health Minister Khairy Jamalluddin has called on the World Health Organisation and member countries to disclose future intellectual property and manufacturing know-how of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics for the benefit of all.
Speaking at the 75th Session of the World Health Assembly in Geneva today, Khairy also said a mechanism should be in place to allow equitable distribution of resources needed in a pandemic.
"We should build back better, but equitably with no country left behind. We must not only share the pain but do the same in sharing the cure and recovery," Khairy said.
Malaysia, he said, would like to call on all health ministers and officials to be the voice of social justice in their respective governments.
"Let us honour the sacrifices of our healthcare workers during the pandemic by demanding resources needed to build resilient healthcare systems, for health to be seen as an investment and not just a budgetary line item and for us to better look after the physical, the mental and the spiritual well-being of our people and the health of our shared planet," he said.
Khairy also described the theme for this year's assembly "Health for Peace, Peace for Health " as timely as the world slowly emerges from the pandemic.
He also said wars in some parts of the world threatened humanity and the economic disruption caused by the lack of peace would plunge billions into poverty.
"This will exacerbate socioeconomic determinants of health and derail our vision of 'Health for All'," he added.
Khairy said climate change had also wreaked havoc on food supplies.
"Now neglected tropical diseases such as dengue that affects countries like mine are a concern of other countries due to global warming. Yet there is still hope," he said.
He said Malaysia supported recommendations for sustainable financing that would make the WHO fit for purpose.
"We support reforms towards an international health architecture that will avoid the moral failures in our response to Covid-19. However, any amendments to the International Health Regulations will have to respect the principles of equity, accountability and transparency and the sovereign process of member states."
Khairy said Malaysia supported the Director-General and WHO Secretariat's Report on the Implementation of the International Health Regulations (2005).
"During the pandemic, we all witnessed the gaps in the International Health Regulations (IHR) where there can be room for improvement in terms of equity. The amendments to the IHR proposed by the United States and the Russian Federation are needed but Malaysia has concerns about some of the amendments," he said.
Khairy said it was imperative that WHO considered member states' national legislations and policies when determining the amendments to the IHR.
"We agree that negotiations on the proposal for amendments and any additional suggestions thereof should continue after May 2022.
"Malaysia believes the Working Group on Strengthening WHO Preparedness and Response (WGPR) will provide the platform to achieve the consensus among the member states, to treat all the amendment proposals on an equal footing."