Press releases

MINSK, 22 November (BelTA) - Minsk has been invited to join, using a fast-track procedure, to the WHO Healthy Cities project in the run-up to the 2nd European Games, Minsk Vice Mayor Igor Yurkevich told the media on the sidelines of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) Regional Consultation on Expanding Access to Affordable and Quality Assured Antiretroviral and Antituberculosis Medicines on 20-22 November, BelTA has learned.

“Yesterday I returned from St. Petersburg where we discussed Minsk’s accession to Healthy Cities initiative. We are proposed to use a fast-track procedure, ahead of the 2nd European Games. If we position ourselves as an athletic city and committed to healthy lifestyle, then joining the initiative is logical. The matter is not just about the prevention of infectious diseases. It means that every resident of the city will take personal responsibility for their health,” Igor Yurkevich.

He added that Gorki was the first city in Belarus to have joined the European network in 2016.

Launched in 1988, the WHO Healthy Cities project has implemented the principles of the UN Health for All strategy and the European policy for health and well-being Health 2020. The European network includes 96 cities and is supported by the national networks of 30 countries. In Belarus The Healthy City movement kicked off in 2012.

Minsk is hosting the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) Regional Consultation on Expanding Access to Affordable and Quality Assured Antiretroviral and Antituberculosis Medicines on 20-22 November. Participants of the forum are discussing access to efficient treatment, diagnostics and prevention of infectious diseases, like tuberculosis, HIV and hepatitis. These diseases represent a serious issue in all the countries of the region.

The event has been organized by the Belarusian Healthcare Ministry with support of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the Stop TB Partnership.