Bhutan honoured for public health gains at the WHO South-East Asia Regional Committee session

8 September 2026

Bhutan was among the countries honoured for public health achievements at the Seventy-ninth Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia. The session was held in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, and WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus handed the awards to health ministers and heads of delegation. Bhutan was recognised for eliminating dog-mediated human rabies as a public health problem, the first country in the region and the second in the world after Mexico. It was also honoured for continuing its newborn and child survival work after already meeting the Sustainable Development Goal targets for neonatal and under-five mortality. A third citation noted that Bhutan went past its 2025 national target by putting more than 70,700 people on protocol-based management for high blood pressure and diabetes. Timor-Leste was honoured for eliminating trachoma and Thailand for rubella elimination at the same session. The Regional Committee is the governing body of WHO's South-East Asia Region and meets every year.