WORLD HEALTH DAY 2023 MESSAGE

Today, April 7 is World Health Day. The theme for World Health Day (WHD) 2023 is Health for All. As
we observe WHD 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) is celebrating its 75th anniversary. The
governments of the world signed an agreement and the World Health organization begun its work on April
7, 1948.
The NCD Commission in Guyana extends our congratulations to the WHO. The WHO has been steadfast
in promoting better health for all and the WHO, 75 years after, has continued its mission of Health for All.
The NCD Commission of Guyana will continue to work along side the WHO to ensure we achieve the
goals of Health for All for the Guyanese people.
World Health Day 2023 is a special one for Guyana. The NCD Commission is pleased to see that Guyana’s
President issued a World Health Day message. He is, therefore, one of the few heads of state that have
ever issued a special World Health Day message. We are proud that Guyana’s President and Government
have made it clear that Health for All is the epicenter of Guyana’s development strategy 2030.
The NCD Commission continues to advocate for more action to address the social determinants of health.
Without a robust campaign to address the social determinants of health, we cannot envision the
empowerment of people so they can live peaceful, prosperous, and fulfilling lives. No development
strategy is effective or can be effective if at the center of the strategy it does not cater for individuals and
communities to have access to quality health services to enable them to take care of their own and their
families’ health.
The Government of Guyana has increase significantly the health investment, with more than a doubling
of the per capita investment in health between WHD 2020 and WHD 2023. At least seven new hospitals
have already started construction and all existing hospitals will be re-developed. The physical and
technological infrastructure of the public health sector is being transformed. Human resource
transformation has also begun. A telemedicine program is linking people from the most remote
communities to doctors at GPHC. The NCD Commission is encouraged by these developments.
For WHD 2023, we urge the Ministry of health and the government and, specifically, appeal to President
Irfaan Ali, to escalate and elevate the strategies and actions to manage and control cancers in our country.

We are aware of specific actions the government has embarked on with Mount Sinai of New York and
with the Chinese Medical Brigade to elevate the cancer response programs in Guyana. We feel Guyana
can, indeed, do more to elevate the cancer response to protect our people.
We are disappointed that the education and awareness program and the strategies to lift the HPV
vaccination among boys and girls appear stagnated and little effort is being made to improve HPV
vaccination coverage. Equally, we are disappointed that HPV testing is still very inaccessible in Guyana.
HPV testing is critical for Guyana to identify persons at risk for cervical cancer and for other cancers. We
are hopeful that the NCD Commission will not have to remind the MOH how important the need for more
actions to elevate HPV vaccination and testing when WHD 2024 come around.
In 2021, 2022 and now in 2023, the NCD Commission advocated for more robust testing for HBA1c in
primary health care. We are disappointed that HBA1c testing is still difficult to access in the public health
sector. Very few persons have access to HBA1c testing in health posts and health centers and in district
hospitals. Disappointingly, very few people have access to HBA1c testing in Regional Hospitals still as
we observe WHD 2023. We urge the MOH to correct this lapse long before WHD 2024. This is an example
to show that Health for All is still an illusion. We must work towards genuine reduction of health inequity,
and this is one way to do so.
Food and Nutrition remain a major strategy in the fight against both NCDs and Infectious Diseases. Our
children are still expose to unhealthy food and our efforts to mitigate the problem remain timid. Front of
the Package labeling cannot be yet another slogan. We must advocate and ensure that it happens. Salty,
sugary, ultra-proceed food are killing us and we remain on the sidelines as bad food kill more of us than
any infectious pandemic has ever done.
More than 74% of our deaths are now due to the NCDs. More than 32% of all NCD deaths are premature.
There is an opportunity for us in Guyana to do more. We congratulate the MOH for the launching of the
Diabetic Center at Lusignan. This is a significant action. While we are grateful that the MOH has recently
launched the Diabetic Center of Excellence at Lusignan, we must ensure quality diabetic services reach
all citizens in Guyana. The last Diabetic Treatment and Care Guidelines, Edition 3, was published in 2008.
Since then, no amendment has been made. We congratulate the Honorable Minister for his personal leadership to ensure that the Guidelines are updated to include many new innovations in the new guideline,
which is being developed with support from Mount Sinai.
Guyana is a signatory to the SDGs. Goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals, ‘Ensuring healthy lives
and promote well-being for all at all ages.’ Target 3.5 was pledged to strengthen the prevention and
treatment of substance use, a major public health problem globally. Substance abuse significantly impacts
on the development of young people and can compromise their educational paths, work lives and
contribution to society. Guyana needs health-centered approach to control substance abuse. We continue
to lag behind in our response to substance abuse. We urge the MOH to embrace the UNODC/WHO
strategy in our overall response to a problem that continues to grow.
The MOH has announced an innovative program to deal with vision and hearing for school children. We
are supportive of these programs and will work alongside the MOH to ensure that all children have an
opportunity to succeed in school and in their communities without being impeded because of vision and
hearing losses.
The NCD Commission wishes everyone a healthy 2023 and reiterate our commitment to advocate for
more and better programs for a healthier Guyana and for Health for All.