India becoming world's pharmacy is biggest achievement-WHO

World Health Organization (WHO)'s Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan has said that India becoming the pharmacy of the world is one of its biggest achievements in the past 75 years. Speaking at an Indian channel health programme on Sunday, Dr Swaminathan  listed out four big achievements of the country - from the elimination of polio and a few other vaccine-preventable diseases to reducing maternal and child mortality to universal health coverage to India becoming the pharmacy of the world.

She also said that spotlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the delivery of essential health services in almost every country, including India. There has been a setback in tuberculosis treatment, non-communicable diseases, in delivery of ante-natal and child health services in India, she noted. "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.