New Delhi, April 15 (IANS) The Union Health and Family Welfare held the first Health Working Group (HWG) meeting under the BRICS framework for 2026 here on Wednesday, bringing together senior health officials and delegates from nine member nations to advance cooperation on public health priorities ranging from tuberculosis research to digital health architecture and mental wellness.

The virtual meeting — which was chaired by Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava, with participation from Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia — reflected the expanded BRICS membership that now spans four continents.

As BRICS Chair for 2026, India has anchored its presidency around the theme ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’, a framework rooted in the people-centric approach articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 2025 Rio Summit.

The theme sets the tone for India’s health diplomacy priorities throughout the year, emphasising inclusive, evidence-driven, and scalable health cooperation across diverse national contexts.

Health Secretary Srivastava said that the BRICS Health Working Group meetings in recent years have paved the way for collaboration on pressing health challenges, including communicable and non-communicable diseases, strengthening of health systems, and improving access to affordable medicines.

Moreover, she has proposed two new priority areas under India’s chairship.

The first is a BRICS Mission for Healthy Lifestyles, aimed at promoting healthy behaviours and tackling key risk factors, including unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and harmful alcohol consumption.

The second is the Promotion of Mental Health and Wellness, focusing on strengthening mental health services, reducing stigma, and integrating mental health into mainstream public health frameworks.

Both proposals received broad support from member delegations.

Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Indonesia each expressed firm backing for the two new priorities alongside support for traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine being woven into national health systems.

The meeting deliberated on nine priority areas under the BRICS Health Working Group for 2026 like the BRICS TB Research Network, collaboration among BRICS medical products regulatory authorities, a BRICS Integrated Early Warning System for mass infectious diseases, digital health architecture for continuum of care including remote areas, the healthy lifestyles mission, mental health promotion, traditional, complementary and integrative medicine, diseases driven by social determinants of health and a BRICS Network of National Public Health Institutes.

According to the government, the agenda has reflected a broad sweep from hard science and regulatory harmonisation to social determinants of health and digital infrastructure.

Across their statements, member countries emphasised universal health coverage, equitable access to health technologies, local production of medicines and vaccines, and strengthening pandemic preparedness infrastructure as shared goals.

Deepening collaboration on tuberculosis through the BRICS TB Research Network and advancing the integrated early warning system for infectious diseases were highlighted as near-term priorities requiring concrete deliverables.

–IANS

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