Health Ministry to do more
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE Ministry of Health has found that some people in the Federation are not taking their diet seriously, as a child was recently found suffering from malnutrition.
Minister of Health the Hon. Eugene Hamilton recently made that disclosure while addressing an awards ceremony, and he told SKNVibes that this could be the result of “carelessness on the part of the family on the one hand”.
He noted that health officials would be looking into the matter very seriously as the child has since made a full recovery.
“There is a system for the monitoring of all children that were born in this country. I am happy that the person did not die from malnutrition, but it is a case that we would have to look into to see what really happened...if it involves a family that neglected to do certain things or it may very well have been an inaction on the part of the health authorities.”
For many years the Federation’s health officials have been complaining that many people, including children, were not eating a balanced meal.
Children are oftentimes seen consuming many fatty foods and not having the proper nutrition as outlined in many medical journals.
Hamilton pointed out that since the child did not die, which is a plus, the Department of Health would have to look at its system and pinpoint where their weaknesses are and look at ways in which it could be strengthened.
The Ministry of Health recently made several appointments to its Health Promotion Unit, which has a principal role of educating the people on all aspects of a healthy lifestyle.
“The main focus of the Health Promotion Unit is to help them [the populace] to minimize the incidents of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and so on,” Hamilton noted.
Against that backdrop, the Minister suggested that there needs to be greater focus on promotion and education of the people, noting that it starts with the those in the education system.
“You have to target children in their habit-forming ages because when you get that habit down there you always have it. It is always better to inculcate good habits from an early age.”
He pointed out that it requires a lot more work from the Government’s perspective to highlight some of the problems associated with malnutrition.
