Let me take this opportunity to thank all of you for making time to be here with us on this important day in our health calendar. Quite often when health is talked about in the media it is because of bad and horrible things that are happening, for instance how HIV and AIDS is killing us, or the failure of our health systems to cope. Today however, as Ministers of Health in the region, we meet here today to turn into the new page in our fight against diseases, especially non-communicable diseases. As we always say, prevention is better than cure.
To colleagues in the region, as we meet here today, let this be the beginning of a new way of doing things as far as health-delivery is concerned. It cannot be sustainable that we just sit and wait for diseases to occur before we do anything. On my part as South Africa’s Health Minister I want to publicly commit myself and my department to doing everything possible to reverse the scourge of non-communicable diseases which are fast proving to be a huge burden in the health care system of our country as the Lancet report correctly points out. Let me also extend this challenge to my counterparts in the region.
Our problems as sister countries and neighbours are the same. HIV and AIDS are consuming our populations. Our resources for health are shrinking. Human resources for health are limited. This is an unacceptable situation and we have a responsibility to reverse it, otherwise the region that future generations will inherit will be something not to be proud of.
Later this morning I will be making a detailed address to the media and the public on this matter and the importance of this day. What I was merely doing now was to briefly outline to the media the context within which we meet today and introduce my counterparts from the region to you.
As you may be aware, tomorrow we will be joined by experts and researchers in the area of non-communicable where we will be thoroughly looking into this problem and exploring various ways to address it.
On this note I would like to invite any of the ministers present here to also make brief reflections on this day.
Thank you very much.
Issued by: Department of Health
26 February 2010
