_{Photo: Perlite Aldana, President of Belize Medical and Dental Association}

by Marco Lopez

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Oct. 31, 2024

The Belize Medical and Dental Association (BMDA) commenced its 41st Annual Congress today under the theme, “Advancing public health: Uniting for better outcomes together. We can shape a healthier future.”

Director of Public Health, Dr. Melissa Diaz-Musa shared that public health management entails improved disease prevention, increasing immunization, vaccines, diet, and generally ensuring the Belizean population is healthy enough to produce and perform.

During her keynote address, Dr. Diaz-Musa discussed what has been done in-country to promote public health.

“Belize joined four other countries in the region of the Americas to have eliminated Malaria – that is a big deal. We’ve also been able to eliminate the mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, which is very important because it protects our women and the unborn child as well,” Dr. Diaz-Musa pointed out.

She shared that the ministry has also been involved with a number of initiatives, inclusive of the Love Your Heart initiative, and increasing more child vaccinations into the vaccine schedule.

“We have done the Healthy School initiative – and this started just a year ago. This is an extremely important initiative, because the end result will be to ban sugary sweetened drinks from schools all over this country at all levels,” she explained.

Dr. Diaz-Musa said this move will give children a healthier option for food and drinks while in school.

Speaking on the elimination of malaria in Belize, Dr. Diaz-Musa shared, “It’s not just about eliminating these diseases, but it is also to sustain these practices, so, continuous testing [and] training of our health care workers.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared climate change to be the greatest threat to human health in the 21st century. This year’s BMDA congress touched a lot on climate change and its implication on the health of the Belizean population.

“We spoke a lot about climate change and the impact climate change has on health, on clean water, sustainable food supplies – all these things are impacted by flooding, by any shock or any major weather events,” she shared.

Dr. Diaz-Musa shared that the ministry is working directly with local governments in communities affected by the flooding brought on by the current rains to ensure they have access to clean water.

Dr. Russel Manzanero is the head of the Epidemiology Unit in the Ministry of Health. He shared during his presentation that, while regionally and globally the fatalities related to HIV has seen a downward trend, in Belize the trends are still troubling.

“For us in Belize, it’s different; we are seeing that the number of deaths is still the same. We are still having individuals dying from HIV. Regionally, when you look in the Caribbean, and globally, those numbers are on a decrease. Alarmingly, for us in Belize it’s still present; we are still seeing people dying from HIV,” Dr. Manzanero shared.

In 2023, he shared that there were 78 deaths related to HIV. According to Dr. Manzanero, an estimated 3,700 persons are known to be living with the virus in Belize. Of that number, 80% know their status, and 60% are receiving treatment. Despite this, only 30 to 40% of persons are considered virally suppressed – where the trace of the virus is so low that it is undetectable and untransmittable. Only 1,000 persons of the 3,700 are in this category.

“What we are trying to do is let them know of the different testing modalities that we have. We have increased our points of care testing, so we have more rapid tests available. We are working along with NGOs such as BFLA, the CSO Hub, to expand our services, even with NHIs – we are now working with a more rapid test, more specific and sensitive test,” he shared.

He said that the ministry has decentralized its gene testing facility to expand that service to each district – reducing the turning around time to get results after testing.

At this time, the youth-adult population – those between 19–40 – is the main pocket of the population where an increase in HIV infections is being detected. During his presentation on Day 2 of the congress on Friday, Dr. Manzanero will delve deeper into these statistics.

For the president of the BMDA, Perlita Aldana, the congress offers a vital opportunity for healthcare professionals to share knowledge. She refers to each scheduled segment as an educational session. Both members and non-members of the BMDA association will be present for the two-day congress.

While most of the presenters are Belizeans, representatives from Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba and the United States will also be making input, Aldana said.

“We are trying to focus on things that are affecting us directly, because we need to have our doctors informed and prepared so that they can better give back to the community,” Aldana expressed.