What's the link between the spread of the chikungunya virus and Health Minister's declaration in Parliament that 50 per cent of T&T's women are overweight?Incidentally, dietitians say that the overweight condition of women can be equally applied to men.The answer is that both are public health issues that are costing the country millions in dollars and pain by the loss of lives and ill-health as the authorities do battle with the two health conditions and deal with the consequences.
However, in the two instances of dangerous health conditions, individual members of the population need to take some personal responsibility for guarding their well-being.
In the case of the spread of the ChikV, people are calling for more spraying or for regional corporations to clean up overgrown lots. But indiscriminate spraying allows the mosquitoes that carry the virus to build up resistance to the chemicals. Additionally, an overdose of spraying with the chemicals can have unwanted side effects for some sensitive groups of people, including the very young and the very old.
In the case of abandoned bushy lots, there are legal processes that have to be followed by the state authorities before such exercises can be conducted.Meanwhile, there are many steps people can take to ensure their own yards and surroundings are free of the stagnant water where mosquitoes breed. So too in many yards residents must take responsibility for clearing their premises of bush and forms of debris collected over a long period of time which serve to harbor mosquitoes.
In their homes, residents also have the option of using nets and repellants to ward off the threat of mosquito bites and also to reduce the amount of skin they expose.
Similarly, in the case of what is becoming an obesity epidemic, the State pays for the consequences–and it should be noted that payment comes through individual and corporate taxes.
The reality here is that there are tragically high levels of life-limiting non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and heart conditions, which may have been encouraged by genetic and familial pre-conditions but may have been brought on by lifestyles which did not follow basic and at times commonsense rules in relation to eating habits and lifestyles.
The Health Ministry now has a Fight the Fat campaign that seeks to educate people about how to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. But the ministry cannot police personal lifestyles relating to what people eat and drink and how they live their lives, just as the authorities cannot eradicate every mosquito.
So ultimately it's up to individuals to take responsibility for their own welfare, educate themselves about how to eat more healthily, what may happen to them if they don't, and work out a healthy lifestyle that meets their needs and keeps them fit and happy.Now in the world of today, the so-called Age of Information, it is not difficult for people to access and receive information about health issues and the reasons behind the spread of the ChikV.
Moreover, in addition to finding and utilising private sources of information, it must be said that the Ministry of Health has made some effort to spread information about the twin problems of the virus and the consequences of being overweight for easy access by the population.
The lesson going forward not only with regard to the health problems facing the society of today, is that each individual has responsibility to protect his/her health condition. It surely is not a problem that can be completely left in the hands of the public authorities.