‘Stick to healthy food’

LIFESTYLE diseases and cancer were the two main issues highlighted during 46th PNG Medical Symposium held in Wewak, East Sepik, from Aug 29-Sept 3.
According to the new Medical Society in PNG president Prof Nakapi Tefuarani, people’s health was being greatly affected by their lifestyle and diet.
He said the type of food people were eating was causing a lot of diseases and this had contributed to many unnecessary deaths.
“Why eat unhealthy and imported foods when we have the best produced locally?” he said.
Tefuarani said in a statement cancer was also a non-communicable disease (NCD) and results of various researches indicated policies and legislation related to preventative, diagnostic and therapeutic should be strengthened and new policies made.
He said the medical fraternity must be the consulting body to the government on health issues.
“Health workers are officers on the field and they must be listened to,” Tefuarani said.
The Medical Society of PNG would be launching a communications project aimed at reducing maternal and child infant mortality in rural areas.
He said the medical fraternity had come up with the following resolutions: 
* The national task force on prevention control and treatment of non-communicable disease should be established;
*  Cholera was a serious threat to the people, testing our health systems and that the Health Department and other partners make concerted efforts to address the prevention and treatment of cholera;
* All health experts, professionals, workers and providers take heed of risk factors related to non-communicable diseases, be good examples and role models for the society; and 
* It is ethically and morally wrong to allocate scarce resources to build and run a high-tech tertiary private hospital like the Pacific Medical Centre (PMC).
The society recommended that any spare health funds be spent on renovation, maintenance and refurbishment of current national and provincial hospitals.