World Health Day celebrated at K.H.M.H.
The temperatures soared to one hundred and three degrees Fahrenheit today, but over at the parking lot of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, a health fair was in full swing. The event, the third to be held, provided the opportunity to disseminate information, screening and testing on a number of prevalent conditions from diabetes to AIDS and kidney diseases. News Five dropped by for the event as part of World Health Day activities.
Rhiannon Rhamdas, Reporting
Knowing your status is often times associated with your HIV condition, but it could be applied to knowing your health status in its entirety. And so today, at the K.H.M.H. parking lot on Princess Margaret Drive, the third annual World Health Day was celebrated in the form of a fair spearheaded by the Belize Kidney Association.
Olga Herrera
Olga Herrera, President, Belize Kidney Association
“The reason that we are doing this fair is because we have come to recognize the importance of prevention. We see on a weekly basis people who are suffering with kidney disease and it’s a very expensive disease and so if we a can teach people to prevent then we will be doing something great for people. You don’t need to come to health fair to learn about the importance of taking care of their health, but if we can teach people to start from homes, coming up to primary schools, then we know what is good from what is bad.”
There were various health booths providing free testing to the public… so I decided to participate and get tested. The first stop was the AIDS booth. A nerve wrecking experience but I got through it and counselor Margaret Bradley says that events like these contribute to the decrease in contracted cases.
Margaret Bradley
Margaret Bradley, Nurse/Counselor
“Yes it does because at least you come and you know your status; that if you are positive, you know you can start your treatment and if negative, you know the ways to maintain to remain negative.”
Rhiannon Rhamdas
“Tell us about what people coming to your booth can expect?”
Margaret Bradley
“They can expect that it is confidential; we ensure that it is confidential—that’s why we ask that I bring my friend with me, which is good for support. But when the results come out, we need to take you by yourself.”
Ivy Flowers
We also visited the diabetes booth where many gathered to check if they are potential victims to one of the deadliest diseases in the country, diabetes.
Ivy Flowers, Belize Diabetes Association
“Our presence here is to do your testing so that you can know your numbers. In knowing your numbers for diabetes that will let you know about how you can go about living a healthier life and changing your lifestyle of eating and exercising.”
Partners for the event are the Pan- American Health Organization and the Ministry of Health. Evelyn Roldan spoke about the nutritional aspect of a healthy lifestyle.
Evelyn Roldan
Evelyn Roldan, Coordinator, INCAP
“I take their weight and then I analyze their body mass index and I tell them whether they are normal weight, overweight or obese and according to that we can explain the examples of food that they should be eating. And also some information about hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol, obesity and exercise and how they can turn it into a healthy lifestyle.”
Reporting for News Five, from K.H.M.H. parking lot, for World Health Day, I am intern Rhiannon Rhamdas.
World Health Day is celebrated annually on the seventh of April in commemoration of the founding of the World Health Organization in 1948.
