IIMSAM Middle East Office Observed World Health Day

Doha, Qatar, April 08, 2011 --(PR.com)-- On this World Health Day IIMSAM reiterated its resolve to continue to work for making nutritional food Spirulina available to poor and vulnerable populations in countries where it has on-going health projects. Dr. Naseer Homoud Goodwill Ambassador and Director of Middle East office for the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina against Malnutrition (IIMSAM), the Permanent Observer to the United Nations Economic and Social Council said “World Health Day reminds us of the formidable task ahead in the health and development sector. IIMSAM has an impressive record of serving communities in primary healthcare and for supplying nutritional food Spirulina. A number of our projects are in countries where people below the poverty line do not have access to primary healthcare facilities.”

Dr. Homoud contended that health is a right. The Millennium Development Goals reaffirmed this right and provided targets for achieving it. Several reports review the obstacles women and young children face in fulfilling their right to health. It pays particular attention to new-borns, whose needs have fallen between the cracks. The reports also focuses on countries where progress in maternal and child health is slow, stagnant or reversing, where less than half of mothers and new-borns receive health care, and even those not the full range, he said.

Dr. Homoud urged that antibiotics have undoubtedly made a major contribution to improvements in both human and animal health and welfare. The recent years have brought an alarming rise in the prevalence of resistance to some agents among certain groups of bacteria. Concern is growing that therapeutic options will become increasingly limited if resistance rates continue to rise. There is widespread agreement that action is required to reverse or at least slow down this process. “Necessary steps to manage the situation include better surveillance to assess accurately the extent of the problems, more prudent use of the available antibiotics to conserve valuable therapeutic resources and improved infection control to limit the spread of resistant organisms. Achieving these goals will not be possible without the government, medical professionals and public being better informed and educated. Regulatory bodies and the pharmaceutical industry need to work together to ensure a steady supply of new antimicrobials,” said Dr. Homoud.

“Unfortunately antibiotics, though of vital importance for mankind, have also been liable to misuse. Antibiotics are often unnecessarily prescribed for viral infections, against which they have no effect. Similarly when diagnoses are not accurately made, more often than not, broad-spectrum antibiotics, i.e. antibiotics that kill a large proportion of various bacteria and not only the bacteria responsible for the disease, are prescribed because the micro-organism responsible for the infection is not known. These examples of misuse promote the emergence and the selection of resistant bacteria,” he said.

While giving the call to support IIMSAM and its initiatives which is channelizing its efforts to fight malnutrition and hunger among the masses particularly children Dr. Homoud hoped that under guidance of His Excellency Ambassador Remigio M. Maradona Secretary- General of the IIMSAM, the organization would reach to its target in fighting these menaces of contemporary world and thus contributing towards a healthy society.

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