…in address to World Health Assembly

THE urgent need for stronger systems to monitor health risks globally as well as to assess the impact of climate change on their occurrence was underscored by Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence recently at the 70th World Health Assembly.
In her address, the minister said “More emphasis should also be placed on research of new treatments and cures, along with the development and production of global stocks and the availability of vaccines and medicines at a reasonable cost.”
She believes that collectively, the World Health Assembly can motivate global action with the greatest local impact on sustainable development as a group by sharing best practices, innovation and solutions that will serve to enhance the health and well-being of all.
Themed, “building better systems for health in the age of sustainable development,” Minister Lawrence believes that a unique opportunity presents itself to address some of the most challenging global health issues and deliberate on appropriate solutions that will ensure the world is safer, healthier and responsive to the needs of inhabitants.
In the case of Guyana, the Minister of Public Health said challenges are related to non-communicable diseases, global health security threats and access by all to the determinants for good health. “I have no doubt, Madam President, that this Assembly will facilitate a clear path to good health and well-being, by building consensus on the acceleration of the NCD Goals adopted by the 2014 Review meeting of the Political Declaration of the 2011 UN High level meeting, and WHO Goals and targets particularly with regard to the marketing of harmful substances (tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy fatty, salty and sugary foods and beverages), and the access to prevention and treatment technologies, including diagnostics, medicines, screening measures and risk factor mitigation,” she said.
Additionally, Lawrence noted that the global food, beverage, medical technology and pharmaceutical industries have become so powerful that Small Island and Developing States (SIDS), and “countries with low-lying coastal zones like mine with limited regulatory and monitoring capacity, cannot effectively impact on the negative effects of the activities of these giants.”
The Minister of Public Health said too that the collective efforts of the Assembly’s ability to negotiate better solutions for healthy foods and beverages, high-quality, effective and safe medicines and other medical technologies to stimulate the promotion of health and wellness is miniscule as individual SIDS, but more impactful when voiced together.
Lawrence said development in the context of climate change, globalization and the ability to purchase has placed health at risk and noted that those changes “not only allow extremes of weather, raising sea levels and temperature fluctuations to impact health, but also benefits the rapid movement of goods and services to enhance well-being.”
Given the aforementioned, the minister said there has been an increase in extreme weather, flooding and drought with the propagation of insect vectors spurring outbreaks like Chikungunya and Zika. Additionally, Minister Lawrence made it clear that rapid access to health resources and technologies with timely interventions and solutions have been seen, while referencing the responses to the Ebola outbreak and the Zika epidemic here and across the region.