India becoming pharmacy of the world greatest achievement: WHO's Dr Soumya Swaminathan

Dr Swaminathan was speaking at NDTV's Swasth Bharat, Sampann Bharat Telethon.

She listed four big achievements of India - elimination of polio and a few other vaccine-preventable diseases, reducing maternal and child mortality, universal health coverage, and India becoming the pharmacy of the world.

"There needs to be a good stock take of where exactly more attention will need to be paid in the coming months, and not only to catch up, but also ensure that we create resilience within the system to ensure, that if there are future health shocks, and there are bound to be health shocks in the future, that we can deal with those without having to compromise on other essential health services," said Dr Swaminathan.

Dr Swaminathan pointed out that Covid-19 pandemic has changed the circumstances of many families and pushed people into poverty, requiring the experts to look at the data carefully.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), malnutrition is a major contributor to disease burden in India and a predominant risk factor for death among children younger than 5 years of age.

The pandemic has worsened the situation, she opined.

"The Covid pandemic has also increased the rates of poverty and is likely to increase undernutrition in the community. So we need to really look at the data carefully increasing rates of poverty and under nutrition could drive up the incidence of diseases like tuberculosis, but also other diseases that are related to poverty. So this is something that we will need to watch closely and take preemptive action on," she added.