Health minister addresses health, climate change at WHO summit |23 May 2018

Health Minister Jean-Paul Adam has urged the World Health Organisation to be action-oriented in matters related to health and climate change and to recognise that the principle of “health for all” is at risk in the face of the changing world climate.

Minister Adam said this yesterday in the presence of the director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and health ministers from all the small island states of WHO in the margin of the World Health Assembly taking place in Geneva, Switzerland.

The minister noted that the disruptions in local monsoons and rain patterns in Seychelles have led to longer and more sustained outbreaks of dengue.

He added that while dengue is under control, the displacement of the customary drier season has meant that Seychelles has required constant mobilisation to achieve that control.

Minister Adam further reminded the international audience that last year Seychelles had to undertake an unprecedented mobilisation to address the emergence of the plague outbreak in neighbouring Madagascar and that currently, it is mobilising to prepare for the re-emergence of Ebola epidemic that has hit urban areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“These preparations have placed an unprecedented strain on our human resources and also divert resources away from improving the quality of service of primary care and also from investing in more prevention,” said Minister Adam.

The minister also emphasised the need for appropriate and specific resources to be made available for Sids within WHO and underlined that previous barriers for support around GDP per capita should be avoided.

Minister Adam is accompanied by his principal secretary Dr Bernard Valentin, the acting chief nursing officer Gylian Mein and the director of public health, Rodney Philo.