CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Newly-elected President of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the Hon Dr Leslie Ramsammy has lamented the omission of the issue of chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (cNCDs) from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and is insistent that this issue is accorded high priority on the global public agenda.
In his Inaugural address to the 61st World Health Assembly in Geneva, 19-24 May 2008, the Guyana Minister of Health called upon the WHO to identify cNCDs an additional goal for the Millennium, as it had done for other public health challenges. Dr. Ramsammy reported that Guyana had decided to proceed with cNCDs as an addition to the MDGs.
“The MDGs failed to identify the NCDs, in spite of the fact that these diseases account for fully 60% of the global mortalities and in spite of the fact that most of the morbidity and mortality caused by the NCDs are preventable. I believe that this is a serious omission and this anomaly should be corrected,” the Assembly President asserted.
Though acknowledging the significant role played by WHO in highlighting the problem of chronic NCDs, Dr. Rammsammy said there was need to catapult efforts and advocacy into a more urgent and robust crusade against this “violent tornado.”
He added that it was also of critical importance to address the issue of lifestyle choices such as substance use dependency. Citing tobacco and alcohol as two risk factors, Dr. Ramsammy stated that the global consumption of both alcohol and tobacco constituted a global crisis that must be reversed quickly.
“Our peoples, while consuming too much alcohol and tobacco, do not consume enough fruits and vegetables. Compounding the problem, our peoples are not engaged in enough physical activity. The consequence is a pandemic of overweight and obesity. These lifestyle choices must be reversed now.”
Minister Ramsammy also acknowledged CARICOM Heads of Government who in September 2007 held a Summit to address the issue of the NCDs, underlining their recognition of the problem and their willingness to collectively tackle the issue.
Those Heads of Government the Minister averred had clearly recognized that the NCD goals were as critical as those in the MDGs.
“It is for this reason that CARICOM … through an edict from the Heads of Government will be observing the first CARICOM Wellness Day on the second Saturday of September and thereafter every year at the same time,” the President told the Assembly. The World Health Assembly is the highest decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO). It meets in Geneva in May of each year and is attended by approximately 193 Member States and their delegations.
Guyana’s Minister of Health is the second CARICOM minister to have been appointed as its president in thirty years, the first being the Hon. Kamaluddin Mohammed, Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Health in 1977.
