Roseau, Dominica: In his Friday conference, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit promised to reduce the number of Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases (CNCDs) among the country’s residents. He mentioned the subject once more and encouraged everyone to take responsibility for their health and well-being.
Minister Skerrit stated that the other problem this winter is CNCDs, and mentioned that, unfortunately, he is virtually a Lone Ranger during the conference.
When a 40-year-old woman has her leg amputated and has four children, is she a single parent? He asked. What will happen to this family if she has a stroke and cannot move on one side of her body?
What would happen to this family if we could reduce this cost by half? The cost of treating these patients, which is rising yearly? If we spread awareness and advocate for better public education and management of health and well-being.
PM Roosevelt Skerrit emphasised the importance of raising public knowledge of CNDCs and noted that since many people discuss roads on this issue, he is informing the nation that this issue is essential.
He emphasised that there are far too many men over the age of 40 who have not visited a doctor in more than 60 years. By the time they do, it is often too late to treat prostate cancer because it has advanced and may have spread to other body organs. For this reason, the health promotion unit needs to be completely reorganised.
Regarding the media’s part in this, PM Skerrit said it is essential. Empathy-building and presenting real experiences shouldn’t be reserved for situations that impact families. It must be motivated by care for someone else.
“CNCDs are a big problem in this nation, and I’m genuinely appealing to and praying to the populace. I’m sorry to say that if we don’t act pro-actively and preventively in this fight, which is a fight for survival, a fight to protect our economy, and a fight to protect the citizens of this country from this school coach called CNCDs, we run the risk of finding out it’s too late,” said the prime minister.