Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony’s Message on Caribbean Wellness Day 2023

Guyana joins its CARICOM member states on September 09 in the celebration of Caribbean Wellness Day and Caribbean Wellness Week under the theme: ‘Power through Collective Action with the sub-theme: ”The Care We Need: At Work, At School, At Home”.

In 2007, as part of a unified response to promote health and prevent and control the epidemic of Non-Communicable Diseases or NCDs, Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) signed and declared the second Saturday in September to be “Caribbean Wellness Day” (CWD).

Ever since, Ministries of Health across the Caribbean utilise CWD to advocate for policies at the institutional, national and regional levels (via CARICOM) that would positively influence the practice of health-promoting behaviours in Caribbean people.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) account for approximately 41 million deaths each year, equivalent to 71% of all deaths globally. Each year, more than 15 million people between the ages of 30 and 69 years, die from a NCD; 85% of these “premature” deaths occur in low-and middle-income countries, and 77% of all NCD deaths are in low-and middle-income countries.

In the Caribbean and Latin America, the burden of NCDs is mainly due to illness and deaths from a wide range of diseases which include Cardiovascular Diseases, Cancer and Diabetes and are attributable to risk factors, such as physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, harmful use of alcohol and tobacco, air pollution, stress and overweight/obesity.

Guyana has joined the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America in the call for a comprehensive approach to decrease illnesses and deaths due to NCDs. To this end, the Ministry of Health has developed a National Strategic Plan for NCDs 2021-2030, in consultation with various stakeholders. This plan follows the World Health Organisation’s advice to focus on five diseases (cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases and neurological diseases) and five risk factors (tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, harmful use of alcohol, and air pollution).

The Ministry of Health has also embarked on developing a National Mental Health Strategy. These two strategies will address the NCDs, and the risk factors, and use evidence-based interventions to reduce morbidity and mortality.

The Ministry of Health will also be collaborating with the Mount Sinai Health Systems to launch a “Go for 6” campaign with local cricketers. The campaign will focus on the raising awareness on health eating and living to delay the progression or prevent diabetes. It will also seek to highlight the importance of early screening and medication adherence while highlighting the new standards of diabetes guidelines for primary health care.

However, despite our government’s commitment to tackle NCDs and improve the lives of people living with Chronic Diseases, the onus is on every Guyanese to make the conscionable change in the way they eat, their level of physical activity and their avoidance of the habits of drinking and smoking.

We call on all Guyanese to unite to fight NCDs, educate each other on good lifestyle practices, heed the advice of their physicians, use their medications correctly and in a timely fashion, and include physical activity and exercise in their daily routine.

So, on this occasion of Caribbean Wellness Day, I also take this opportunity to urge all Guyanese to continue to be safe and safeguard their health by continuing to practice hand washing, get vaccinated and begin to make those changes towards a healthy lifestyle.