Minister of Health Attends 52nd Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization – Belmopan. October 7th, 2013. Minister of Health Hon. Pablo Marin was among health officials that agreed to a plan of action that seeks to reduce premature deaths due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by 25% by the year 2025.
The joint plan of action was approved by the 52nd Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) that convened last week in Washington D.C. It calls for policies to promote prevention and control of NCDs and reduce their risk factors. Under the joint plan of action, health officials agreed to specifically promote prevention of NCDs beyond health, expand and provide universal access to health services for NCDs, reduce tobacco intake by 30%, promoting healthy diets to reduce the impact on children, and improve the surveillance of risk factors among others for NCDs.
Member countries pledged to give priority to NCDs in their health development agendas to implement and achieve the plan’s goals. PAHO will provide technical cooperation to countries to help strengthen and monitor the progress to achieve the plan’s goals.
Cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic respiratory disease are the leading NCDs and have been found to be related to a common set of risk factors. Minister Marin returned to Belize over this past weekend.
