More than 13% of Belize’s population over 20 is diabetic, a third
is hypertensive, and according to statistics quoted by the Minister of Health
more than two thirds are overweight. You heard right – 2 out of every
three Belizeans over 20 is overweight. Those are the startling statistics that
have prompted the Ministry of Health to form a commission on non-communicable
diseases. The ten member Commission will be chaired by Director of Health Services
Dr. Michael Pitts and will have representation from relevant stakeholders. Minister
of Health Pablo Marin says the Commission will look at issues such as public
smoking which could be banned.
Hon. Pablo Marin, Minister of Health
“There are a lot of non-communicable diseases that can be preventable.
Obese is one of them and this is one of the major ones. With obesity then you
have hypertension, we have kidney problems. So we have formed this Commission
for us to target and teach the people exactly what to do and that is why the
Commission is a broad area of technical people; we have sports, agriculture,
doctors, and to Chair this commission is my DHS on my behalf so that we can
know exactly what is happening and how we are going along with it.
We’re seeing a lot of young people, a lot of people right now kidney
problems and so how we can fight this. It is not only getting all the medication,
there is something else and something is preventing; stop drinking soft drinks,
exercise, and these are the kind of promotions that we are going to do. And
like what I am going to do next week, stop smoking at all public places. That
is very essential also because if you are a non-smoker, because of someone you
can still get cancer. So once we can stop this it will help us also to use our
resources in somewhere else. That is the main objective.”
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