Health ministers and other senior officials from across the WHO Western Pacific Region are meeting here this week at the seventy-seventh session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for the Western Pacific, the WHO governing body for the Region.

The session, from 19 to 22 October, focuses on key priorities where progress is lagging - immunization, hypertension control and tobacco control. The Regional Committee also will consider the fast-evolving area of artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for public health in the most populous WHO region with 2.2 billion people, a quarter of the world population.

The session comes amid mounting economic pressures regionally and globally. This reality challenges governments in expanding access to health at a time when such investments are more vital than ever for a region grappling with a mounting burden of noncommunicable diseases, more frequent health emergencies, rapid population ageing and the health impacts of the climate crisis.

At the same time, significant advances in science and medicine, along with the opportunities presented by AI and digital health, symbolize the potential the Region has in strengthening health systems and expanding access to health - including for the most neglected and vulnerable populations.

"From renewed priorities to new frontiers, the RC77 agenda is both ambitious and urgent," said Dr Saia Ma'u Piukala, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific. "By addressing hypertension and the harms of tobacco, we can make significant progress on a range of noncommunicable diseases, from cardiovascular disease and stroke to different kinds of cancer.

"By closing dangerous gaps in immunization, including vaccination for measles and polio, we can safeguard children and young persons from easily preventable diseases," he added. "And by harnessing the immense potential of AI, ensuring we employ this technology safely, ethically and effectively, we can reach the unreached in ways we could scarcely have believed possible not that long ago."

The Regional Committee will consider for endorsement four action plans that will guide WHO cooperation with, and support for, the countries and areas that make up the Western Pacific Region.

• Hypertension control : Hypertension affects about 430 million people in the Region and is the leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease, stroke, disability and premature death. Too often hypertension goes undiagnosed. One in three adults in the Region is living with hypertension (blood pressure at, or higher than, 140/90 mmHg), while control rates remain below 20% in many countries and even below 10% in some Pacific island countries and areas. The draft Regional Plan for Accelerating Hypertension Control in the Western Pacific Region provides practical solutions for settings ranging from small islands and remote rural areas to densely populated cities.

• Tobacco control: Tobacco use causes approximately 3 million deaths each year in the Western Pacific Region, where most countries are off track to achieve the targeted 30% reduction in tobacco use by 2030. Key threats include an e-cigarette epidemic targeting young people, growing tobacco industry interference, and stalled progress on taxation and enforcement. The Regional Committee will consider endorsing the draft action plan, Accelerating Progress towards the 2030 Tobacco Control Target in the Western Pacific Region.

• Immunization: Immunization progress in the Western Pacific has slowed - and in some settings reversed - leaving the Region off track on key Immunization Agenda 2030 targets. The draft Regional Plan to Accelerate Immunization Progress in the Western Pacific prioritizes reducing zero-dose or unvaccinated children and under-immunized populations, achieving and sustaining measles elimination, and advancing immunization across the life course.

• Artificial intelligence< /a>: This agenda item examines how to shape the role of AI in public health effectively and ethically, including expanding access to essential services for underserved communities. The Regional Committee will consider the draft Guidance for Responsible AI in Health in the Western Pacific Region. It contains three interconnected operational frameworks: the first prioritizes use cases; the second helps determine the minimum necessary ecosystem; and the third helps build institutional and workforce capacity.

Besides these four main items, the RC77 agenda includes a ministerial roundtable on a regional health essential stockpile through a pooled procurement mechanism, as well as a discussion with civil society partners on work being done to support healthy ageing.

This year also marks the final time WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will attend a Western Pacific Regional Committee session.

"As Dr Tedros prepares to step down next year at the end of his second and final term, we will be paying tribute to someone who has led WHO through some of the most difficult years in modern global health," said Dr Piukala. "He has consistently defended science when it was questioned, solidarity when it was tested and multilateralism when it came under pressure. But beyond all of that, what I have always valued most is his humanity. While our Director-General's tenure may be moving towards its conclusion, his place in our Western Pacific family will always remain."

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Note to editors:

The work of WHO is guided by the regional vision of Weaving Health for Families, Communities and Societies in the Western Pacific Region (2025-2029).Achieving universal health coverage and getting the Western Pacific Region back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals - especially in the areas where the Region has stalled - requires a strategy for working with families and communities: social renewal towards health for all.

Watch the RC77 proceedings online from 19 October (09:00 Manila time) through 22 October at who.int/westernpacific and WHO Western Pacific Regional Office social media channels: X, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

For more information and/or media interviews: [email protected]