Thailand, Myanmar work together on public health

BANGKOK, February 27 (TNA) - Thailand and Myanmar will continue their cooperation on public health, covering medical services and public health issues along their common border. Visiting Myanmar Vice President Dr. Sai Mauk Kham and Thai Public Health Minister Dr. Rajata Rajatanavin discussed the continual cooperation in Bangkok on February 26. The Thai public health minister later told journalists that the Myanmar vice president expressed his appreciation to and interest in Thailand's comprehensive management of the public health sector and the development of universal healthcare for the public. According to the Thai public health minister, the Myanmar vice president sought Thailand's technical support in the public health sector and transfer of knowledge and experiences so that Myanmar could also be succesful in its management of the public health sector. Besides, the Myanmar vice president proposed that public health meetings of both policy-decision making and operational levels of both countries be held more frequently to follow up progress on cooperation on the development of the Thai and Myanmar public health sector, based on their cooperation framework 2014-2015. Meanwhile, a Thai-Myanmar agreement on public health cooperation, inked in 2013, covers a joint monitoring of communicable diseases in four pairs of Thai-Myanmar border sister cities, including Chiang Rai-Tachileik, Tak-Myawaddy, Kanchanaburi-Dawei and Ranong-Kawthaung, as well as the joint development of food and drug standards, covering those of the traditional medicine and medical and cosmetic products, the prevention of emerging diseases along the common border and the health promotion and development of people and migrant workers along the common border. (TNA)