ALGIERS – The Minister of Health, Abderrahmane Benbouzid, reiterated, Thursday in Algiers, Algeria’s commitment to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to “allow everyone to live in good health and promote well-being”.
Speaking on the occasion of World Health Day, placed this year under the theme: “Our planet, our health”, Mr. Benbouzid recalled Algeria’s “commitment” to “allow everyone to live in good health and promote well-being for all and at any age”, through the adoption of the 2030 Agenda of the SDGs and the subscription to various international commitments.
On this occasion, he stressed the “urgency of priority actions on strategic axes”, first of all, the reduction of deaths related to infections, acute poisoning as well as extreme climatic conditions and urban air pollution, stating, in this regard, the consultation between his department and that of the environment.
This, in addition to the “identification and assessment of environmental carcinogenic risks” in order to reduce the incidence of cancer in Algeria, which remains “a major public health problem”, he added.
It is also a question of “reducing” exposure to allergens of any kind, as well as to reprotoxic agents and/or endocrine disruptors, as well as protecting the population from early hearing disorders, continued Mr. Benbouzid.
He said, in addition, that the Ministry of Health’s strategy also consists of “reducing” water-borne Diseases (WD), as well as “strengthening” the legislation on housing, in particular by integrating the risks related to exposure to heavy metals.
Addressing the “alliance” between the Departments of Health and the Environment to manage this issue, he reported on the establishment of a “framework for monitoring and evaluating actions, in a multisectoral approach”, and mentioned the component related to “training and upgrading the skills of staff in charge of pathologies related to the environment”.
In this regard, he advocated essentially for the “accentuation” of the implementation of measures focused on “improving the quality of life” of citizens as well as for “the continuation of the actions already undertaken”, while involving the associative movement “sustainably”.
For her part, the WHO Director-General for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, in a message addressed on this occasion, called on African states to “urgently take measures to adapt and mitigate” the “increasing” incidence of pathologies related to the environment and “improper” lifestyles.
While noting that more than 13 million deaths in the world are due to environmental causes every year, by the time the African population reaches the milestone of 2.5 billion inhabitants by 2050, she warned of “a concomitant increase” in injuries, diseases and deaths in areas exposed to natural hazards.
Translated by Hope from APS.
