WHO boosts ties with ASEAN

WHO boosts ties with ASEAN

GENEVA (AFP): The World Health Organization has signed an agreement with the Association of South-East Asian Nations to boost joint efforts in combating disease and promoting better health in the region, the WHO said here yesterday.

The Memorandum of Understanding between the two bodies stresses the need to "incorporate health into all poverty alleviation efforts," the WHO said, adding that ASEAN authorities would institute regular exchanges of information in a bid to control the spread of communicable diseases within its borders.

The pact stressed in particular combating such scourges as malaria, dengue hemorrhagic fever, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and tuberculosis .