Meeting held to discuss control of diseases in ECSA states

Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, the Elderly and Children, Ummy Mwalimu

What you need to know:

The meeting that was held in Dar es Salaam aimed at discussing different challenges facing the health sector in the countries of the East, Central and Southern Africa region.

Dar es Salaam. A three-day-meeting hosted by the Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, the Elderly and Children, Ummy Mwalimu, has ended today with delegates committing to seven resolutions to be implemented as a process of attaining sustainable development goals.

The meeting that was held in Dar es Salaam aimed at discussing different challenges facing the health sector in the countries of the East, Central and Southern Africa region.

Speaking during the meeting, Mwalimu said one of the key resolutions was mitigating impacts of emerging and re-emerging diseases such as Dengue that has currently erupted in the region.

She explained that the issue of non-communicable diseases should also be well handled since the key causes of the diseases could be prevented.

Said she, "From our research, diseases such as diabetes and  cancer are  caused by the excessive drinking of alcohol, use of cigarettes and lack of enough exercises.

"If these issues are well handled, there will be reduction in cases of non-communicable diseases."

Ms Mwalimu, who is also the chairperson of the union of health ministers of the countries, said that they had agreed on stepping up health improvement to women and children.

According to her, another resolution is on improving the provision of health care services to pregnant women and that Tanzania has been advised to recognise the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA).

"We have reached agreements on strengthening unity and security in our countries’ borders. Countries have borders but diseases do not have borders thus our unity will help in eliminating and providing solutions to the eruption of diseases such as Ebola and Dengue.

"Strengthening the governance and leadership in the health sector is also one of the resolutions, in which all sectors should engage to improve health in early stages of designs of policies, programs and services," said Ummy.