CARPHA confab to address gaps in human health research

Apr 29, 2017 News

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The 62nd Health Research Conference organised by the Caribbean Public Health Agency

(CARPHA) which began yesterday will place attention on identifying the gaps which exist in the Caribbean regarding Human Health Research.
This was conveyed Thursday evening by Assistant Secretary General, Directorate for Human and Social Development Dr. Douglas Slater at the launch of the conference held at the Umana Yana. He said that it is known that research helps to provide empirical and reliable data to implement the required action to achieve CARPHA’s mission.
This mission, he said, is to provide strategic direction in the analysis, the defining and responding to public health priorities in the region in order to prevent disease, to promote health, and to respond to public health threats and emergencies.
“It seems to me that research is a most vital tool in completing this mission. Research as we all know will provide empirical and reliable data to implement the required action to achieve this very action.”
Slater said that the region is endowed with rich bio-diversity, flora and fauna and that there is no better place to find examples than in Guyana, but equally in some of other territories such as Suriname and Belize.
He said that the biodiversity found in these countries are either precursors or possessors of various medicinal ingredients which may either be preventative or curative.
“Our foreparents would have provided many ways in the form of traditional medicine. In question, do we do enough research? Do we encourage sufficient culture of research and development? And we should ask ourselves that.”
Despite efforts being made, Slater said more can be done. He said that citizens across the Caribbean rely on their technocrats to provide reliable information required to guide policies. Failing to do so can lead to undesirable and very catastrophic outcomes, said Slater.
“Already we are seeing incidents of NCDs (Non Communicable Diseases) which is a very heavy economic and social burden on our region. Where I sit, we work with the policy makers but certainly, to get these actions into policies will require research that is reliable; that will inform our policy makers so that they can be confident in putting forward policies.”
It was even highlighted that in some CARICOM countries, there are out-dated Human Subject Research legislation, and in some cases there are none.

Delivering the feature address was Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings. She said that activities such as the CARPHA conference promote best practices and dictate policies which contribute to the reduction in health-related issues that plague the region.
She said that every level, be it national, regional and global, governments have expressed deep concerns about the impact of climate change on the environment and the human resource asset.
According to the Minister, both the environment and the human resource are susceptible to the spread of infectious diseases that are predicted to occur as a result of climate change.
“As a consequence we have been vigorously pursuing avenues to advance responses that will mitigate the effects of climate change and protect the environment and our people…Using a top-down formula commencing at the governmental level and filtering to every aspect of our various communities, we have to pool our resources and expertise to devise and implement measures to heighten awareness on the effects of climate change.”
The Health Minister said that a strategic communication strategy must be developed to ensure that meaningful messages will be disseminated with a view to improving public health knowledge on climate change-related illnesses and diseases.
She added that given the urgency of finding solutions to these global issues, the CARPHA conference is timely, as it presents an opportunity for attention to be placed on scientific evidence that has already been generated, so that experts can assess the health risks of climate change and the most effective interventions to manage those risks.
Meanwhile, yesterday, CARPHA signed a Letter of Agreement (LoA) to join other CARICOM and non-governmental agencies that represent climate sensitive sectors in the Caribbean to be the leading health partner on the Consortium of Regional Sectoral Early Warning Information Systems across Climate Timescales (EWISACTs) Coordination Partners.
According to a statement circulated by CARPHA, the initiative is being spearheaded by the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH).
The statement said that the agreement is historical, as it makes the Caribbean the first region, globally, to create and implement a joint commitment between climate-sensitive sectors and a climate services provider to build climate resilience.

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