Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Carissa Etienne, has said inequity and poverty among the population in the Caribbean and Latin America are having a severe impact on health in those regions.
Speaking at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus sixth annual Bernard A. Sorhaindo Memorial Lecture on Tuesday evening, Dr. Etienne said ill health is rooted in inequity and poverty and the Latin American and the Caribbean region is known to have the highest levels among the population.
“The disparities within out population are so great,” she stated. “We have the very very rich and the very very poor living side by side and it is this disparity and inequity that set up the condition whereby people suffer ill health.
She stated that these two factors are proving to be the biggest obstacles to people enjoying a healthy status not only in the region but on a global basis. “In the world today over one billion people have no access to health care of any type and it is those sets of inequity that we are talking about,” Dr. Etienne stated.
She also said Dominica has been a pioneer in terms of primary health care based on the framework that was laid down as early as 1981 and 1982, noting that this continues to be the basis of the island’s health care system.
The topic of the lecture was “Universal Health Coverage” and the presentation was made at the Fort Young Hotel.
