India will contribute $2,00,000 towards implementation of the preparedness stream under the South-East Asia Health Emergency Response Fund (SEARHEF), said Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday.

He made the announcement during the ministerial round-table on emergency preparedness on the second day of the ‘72nd Session of the World Health Organization (WHO) regional committee for South-East Asia’.

The Health Ministers of the South-East Asia Region of WHO also signed the Delhi Declaration on Emergency Preparedness.

Dr. Vardhan also highlighted Cyclone Fani as a case study in early preparedness and disaster management and said that accurate weather forecast, effective early warnings, preparedness for timely evacuation of nearly 1.15 million peopleto 6,575 cyclone shelters and other risk mitigation measures helped save many lives.

“Special surveillance was mounted for early detection and control/containment of vector-borne and waterborne diseases. There had been no outbreak of epidemic prone disease following cyclone Fani,” Dr. Vardhan said.

The Health Minister also informed that in the recent past, the government of India has provided timely medical supplies to 13 countries requiring humanitarian assistance spread over South East Asia, Asia Pacific and Africa worth 10 million US dollars. “We continue to extend medical assistance to six countries this year with medical supplies worth $5 million,” he added.