It's World Health Day and globally it is being celebrated under the theme: "invest in health - build a safer future." The theme centers around the idea that in the globalized world, diseases can spread from continent to continent in mere hours. Locally a national health symposium centered on that theme was held at the Radisson Hotel. Here's more.
Sandra Jones, Technical Advisor - PAHO "Three of the major threats to health and security which includes avian influenza, the influenza pandemic, HIV, as well as the whole issue of climate change."
According to the Pan American Health Organization those global health threats have very real local consequences for small countries like Belize. Sandra Jones is PAHO's technical advisor.
Sandra Jones,
"Right now we are living in a world where because of globalization, the world has shrunk. It is very small and just in the same manner we can travel from one continent to the next, it is the same manner in which diseases can travel. And so it is very important that we focus on the emerging and reemerging diseases that can cause threat to the health and security of our nation so this is the focus for World Health Day this year."
So how does Belize confront these global health threats locally? Health Minister Jose Coye spoke at the opening of today's world health day symposium. He says combating the global health pandemics locally will be key to not only the health of Belize - but as this year's World Health Day theme suggests - it'll be key to the country's security.
Hon. Jose Coye, Minister of Health
"I see the theme signaling a clarion call, an imperative. If you want to build a safer future - a future of peace, justice, and harmony within and among nation states you must invest in health. We must invest in health if we are to survive and to develop as an international community."
World Health Day is celebrated annually to coincide with the creation of the World Health Organization.