Healthcare should be Valued during Health, not During Disease
Armenia has turned its attention to public health care. Preventive programs are carried out in Armenia in the framework of “Healthcare should be valued during health, not during disease”. Minister of Healthcare Armen Muradyan said at the International Ministerial Conference “New Challenges in Public Healthcare” held in Yerevan. Speaking about the 20th century world wars, which resulted in the loss of millions of lives, Muradyan noted that communicable and non-communicable diseases declared a war against humanity as well.
“40 million people die every year from non-communicable diseases worldwide, 18 million are premature deaths. Those people could have worked and added values to their country and all humanity.
When we look at this issue in a 10 year perspective, we are talking about 180 million people, and we ask ourselves, which is the bigger war, eports Armen Muradyan saying . According to the minister, the most recent wave of infectious diseases showed that new types of diseases present challenges for humanity as well, and healthcare professionals are obligated to unite against this issue. He stressed the importance of the mass vaccination program, which is successfully being implemented in Armenia, reaching out immunization programs to more than 95% of the population. Referring to the prevalence of non-communicable diseases, Armen Muradyan noted that 80% of mortalities in Armenia are linked to 3 diseases: cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular.
“Defeating these diseases is impossible without public support”, Armen Muradyan said. He stressed the importance of promoting healthy lifestyle, fight against smoking, adding that 55% of men above the age of 16, 6-9% of minors, 2-3% of women in Armenia are smokers. At the invitation of the Prime Minister of Armenia Hovik Abrahamyan, delegations headed by healthcare ministers of Russia, Iran, Georgia, Belarus and Kazakhstan arrived to Armenia to attend the international ministerial conference entitled “New challenges in Public Healthcare”.
