Health officials meet in Belize
And while local officials try to nip a countrywide dengue outbreak in the bud, this week, health representatives from Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic, are in Belize to hold technical talks in preparation for a regional health sector meeting, scheduled for later this year. Known by its Spanish acronym RESSCAD, the organisation has been operating for more than fifty years to address common health issues in the region. In separate rooms at the Radisson, News Five discovered that delegates were discussing, among other topics, food and nutrition, along with water and sanitation. We spoke with three of the participants.
Dr. Jorge Polanco, Deputy Dir. of Health Services
?Cholera to us is an indicator of the quality of water that we have. The fact that we know that cholera is endemic, but when I say that we have not had reported cases, nobody has really manifested signs and symptoms that any clinician would have classified as cholera. Cholera is a waterborne disease, food borne/waterborne, so because that is an indicator, we know that there is good water, our pipe water is safe.?
Hérnan Delgado, Dir., Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama
?It?s very important that the topic is a topic that is serving the integration of the Central American region. At present, I think all Central American region has concern about the poverty situation, the lack of food for certain population groups, and the importance of this topic as promoting equity within the region, I think this is a very important point.?
Dr. Errol Vanzie, Dir. of Health Services
?It?s not just another workshop to increase our knowledge and intellect, but to try to come up with solutions to the identified problems. We know that there are pockets of populations in Belize that have specific nutritional problems and that?s part of the plan to address the inequities that exist within our population, to be able to tailor the program to the groups that are at need based on the problems that they are facing. We know that there are certain groups that have problems with parasitic infection which as a consequence of that creates anaemia, and so we need to be aware of that so we can tailor our programmes to those needs.?
Secretariat for the Health Conference is the Pan American Health Organisation office in Belize. The week of events is being jointly organised by PAHO and the Belize Social Security Board.
