Translated with AI
The 38th meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Council for Healthcare Cooperation was held on October 3, 2025, in Dushanbe. The event was attended by Council members, plenipotentiary representatives of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, heads of the Council's working bodies and core organizations, representatives of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the CIS, the World Health Organization (WHO), the CIS Executive Committee, as well as heads of national healthcare institutions in Tajikistan and other interested organizations.
The meeting was held as part of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Republic of Tajikistan's chairmanship of the CIS Healthcare Cooperation Council.
CIS Secretary-General Sergei Lebedev addressed the participants with a greeting. He noted that 2025 is a special year for the Commonwealth countries, marking the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. "I would like to particularly highlight the 'Medsanbat' project, implemented by the Basic Organization for Public Health and Healthcare Information Technology. We highly honor the heroic work of medical workers during the Great Patriotic War and remember the heroism of the Soviet people," Lebedev emphasized.
He praised the Council's work as an effective platform for professional dialogue, exchange of experience, and the development of unified approaches in the field of medicine. "Maintaining the health of our citizens requires joint efforts and open, results-oriented dialogue. Collaboration between healthcare system leaders is an effective factor in ensuring modern levels of public health protection in the CIS member states," Lebedev stated.
Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tajikistan Dilrabo Mansuri expressed gratitude to the meeting participants and emphasized the importance of strengthening cooperation in the field of healthcare to preserve and improve the health of the population of the Commonwealth countries.
The key agenda item was a discussion of the results of the Ministry of Health of Tajikistan's chairmanship of the Council in 2025. Particular attention was paid to the successful implementation of joint projects, improving the quality and accessibility of medical care, organizing the work of the Council's basic bodies and commissions, improving primary health care, combating infectious diseases, and preventing non-communicable diseases.
Council members also discussed strengthening international cooperation in preserving historical truth and combating the falsification of history during the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The central event was the discussion of holding the Year of Health in the CIS in 2026, approving its emblem, and developing a plan for key events.
The meeting addressed 27 issues, including cancer incidence trends in the pre- and post-COVID periods, the diabetes situation and the potential for using artificial intelligence in diabetology, prevention of non-communicable diseases and particularly dangerous infections, and the organization of medical care in emergency situations.
Joint action plans to prevent the spread of tuberculosis and combat cancer were approved, and the guidelines "General Principles of Epidemiological Surveillance and Prevention of Cholera in the CIS Member States" and "On the List of Diseases, Conditions, and Risky Behaviors for Which Donation of Blood and/or Its Components is Contraindicated" were approved. Approaches to the development of an electronic collection of regulatory documents governing the activities of blood services in the Commonwealth were agreed upon.
Initiatives to grant the status of basic organizations in the field of transfusiology, continuous professional education of healthcare specialists, and medical rehabilitation to a federal state budgetary institution were supported.
The Council members expressed their agreement with the proposal of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly to include model laws and recommendations in the field of public health in the Long-Term Plan for Model Legislation of the CIS for 2026–2028, as well as support for the Second WHO European Programme of Work for 2026–2030, planned for consideration at the 75th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe (RC75) in Copenhagen from 28 to 30 October 2025.
At the end of the meeting, the participants supported the initiative for the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan to chair the CIS Healthcare Cooperation Council in 2026.
