– As COHSOD 21st meeting opens“We have played a pivotal role in bringing the world together to commit to global action to stop the chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) pandemic, one of the most genuine calamities confronting humanities today,” said Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, yesterday.The occasion was the opening of the 21st meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) meeting which was held at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC).The meeting which will continue today is being held under the theme ‘Promoting equity in human development through public health’. It has a major focus on public health and approaches to addressing health and the wellbeing challenges facing the Region.Minister Ramsammy noted that “we must play a leadership role at the UN in September,Cheap Jerseys From China, we must continue our leadership role and we must also endeavour to aggressively tackle the problem of NCDs at home.”He underscored the importance of addressing the impact of tobacco and alcohol even as he pointed to the fact that fast foods, foods high in trans-fat and salt provide a “visible risk for our populations.We must not delay any further…We must have Caribbean standards…this is not just about the prevention of disease it is also about helping to manage disease.”Nutrition, according to the Minister is not just another lifestyle thing but it is about creating health and must therefore be addressed with urgency.The assertion by Caricom Heads of Governments 10 years ago in the Nassau Declaration that the health of the Region is the wealth of the Region is not a mere cliché, according to Ms Myrna Bernard, Caricom’s Head of Human and Social Development.She noted that it is rather founded on empirical evidence which demonstrates the link between human development drivers of which health and education are the primary ones as well as Gross Domestic Product.She pointed to the fact that over the past 10 years COHSOD has continued to build on the regional legacy of functional cooperation in health. This,Wholesale Jerseys Online, she said, has resulted over the years in dramatic improvement in national and regional indicators in important areas such as child survival and maternal mortality and more recently the stabilization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Region.She added that the agenda for COHSOD focuses on taking stock of progress with regards to Caribbean Cooperation in Health. Within this context, Bernard said,China Jerseys Cheap, that emphasis is being placed on some of the newer morbidities such as obesity and the non-communicable diseases.COHSOD, according to her, is also poised to review progress in the second pillar of the Nassau Declaration namely HIV/AIDS.And according to Bernard, COHSOD will benefit from the recommendations made at a recent Chief Medical Officers meeting which featured intense discussions as they considered in detail the progress made in several areas including some with regards to the Port of Spain Declaration which speaks to uniting the fight against chronic non-communicable diseases.Moreover, she noted that COHSOD “will strategise for our continued leadership and advocacy as we approach two important and high level meetings this year in the area of HIV/AIDS in June and Non-Communicable Diseases in September.”Bernard further highlighted the area of Drug Demand Reduction as another critical aspect on the COHSOD agenda. She said that the Caricom Secretariat,Cheap NHL Jerseys, through the Directorate of Human and Social Development, has undertaken over the past three years activities intended to address the scourge of drug addiction which threatens to erode the gains which have been achieved in human development.This, she said, has been made possible with funding through the Caribbean Institutional Strengthening Programme under the EU Ninth European Development Fund. Focus, according to Bernard, has been on institutional strengthening with specific attention to the national drug councils and the development of tools to be used by Member States in addressing behavioural change for drug demand reduction.“Many of these tools have been developed by youths across the community and they feature emerging modalities such as edutainment and are an important addition to the suite of measures currently employed for this purpose.”“The far reaching impacts of drug addiction and other major health issues which form the pool of the agenda for this meeting and the complex nature of their determinants demand inter-sectoral and integrated responses that extend way beyond our Health Ministries and requires engagement not only within social sector areas but also other sectors including the judiciary, agriculture, trade and finance for example,” according to Bernard.In her welcoming remarks Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mrs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett underscored that it is imperative for the Region to continue to find ways of addressing the problem of non-communicable diseases.According to her, “The future of the Caricom and Single Market and Economy should not be compromised by the life style practices that prevent our peoples from living healthy lives. I am advised that 36 million people die annually from NCDs.” She expressed her conviction that “the Region cannot afford to stand idly by and allow these numbers to increase.”According to Caricom’s Acting Secretary General, Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite, PANCAP has in fact been an outstanding example of what can be achieved through functional cooperation of partners at all levels. She noted, for instance, that there is no doubt of the partnerships significant contribution to the gains that have been made in the Region’s response to HIV/AIDS.In some countries, she said, there have been stabilisation of the epidemic while in others there have been some reduction in the prevalence of infections. Importantly, she added,Wholesale Football Jerseys China, that 50 percent of those in need of antiretroviral drugs have access to them in the Region, which is well above the global average of 30 percent.However, there are some existing challenges, she noted,Cheap Jerseys Store, with respect to prevention programmes for the most at-risk-populations as stigma and discrimination remain major obstacles.
