WHO designates Debrecen University dept Vulnerability and Health Collaborating Centre

Budapest, February 18 (MTI) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has designated a department of the Debrecen University in eastern Hungary a Collaborating Centre on Vulnerability and Health.

Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO s Regional Director for Europe, presented the formal document on the designation to Debrecen University Professor Roza Adany on Saturday.

"Through this designation, WHO recognises the department s scientific excellence and long-standing contribution to the vulnerability and health field, particularly relating to Roma health, through a number of research projects and wide international collaboration," Jakab said at the opening of the centre.

The centre is to promote awareness, political commitment and action on the adverse social conditions, including poverty and social exclusion, that make groups such as the Roma and other ethnic minorities vulnerable to ill health, WHO said in a release posted on its website on Saturday.

WHO s work with the centre will include developing equitable and comparable research on Roma health, as well as developing materials and organising events on Roma health research, the release said.