Writing | nacion.pa@epasa.com | Panama Americas – renew:
Health Minister Luis Francisco Sucre met with the high-level committee chaired by Dr. Reina Roa, representative of the National Council for Tobacco Consumption Control.
Panama, through its Ministry of Health (MINSA), will host the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO FCTC and the third session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products.
The organizers explained that the financial resources for the event come from the Secretariat of Framework Agreements and Protocols, located in Switzerland, and from the budget established through the Tobacco Program, which is administered by MINSA, the Tax on the Sales of Tobacco Products. .
They detailed that experts will meet around the world to define a strategic roadmap for implementing the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The event will bring together 1,200 experts dedicated to the cause; it is a biennial world conference in which a member country is chosen as its venue.
It was also reported that Panama will host the third meeting of the parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (MOP-3), which aims to eliminate all forms of illicit trade in tobacco products. The protocol has been ratified by 67 parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
As part of the obligation, the aim is to adopt and apply effective measures to control or regulate the supply chain of items to which this Protocol applies in order to prevent, deter, detect, investigate and prosecute illicit trade in said items. The representative of Panama stated.
Currently, the national prevalence in Panama is 5% among the population aged 15 years and over and 7.8% among young people. In this regard, it is worth noting that Panama has the lowest smoking rate in the Americas, ranking first, and globally we are the country with the third lowest consumption of tobacco and its by-products (cigarettes).
Globally, Panama also stands out, being the third country with the lowest consumption of tobacco and its derivative products in the world.
Organizers also emphasized that the meeting of OMSA member states was responding to the need for a global agreement on how to tackle the tobacco epidemic, which kills nearly 8 million people each year and is a direct cause of non-chronic diseases. Cardiovascular diseases, malignant tumors, lung diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis, diabetes.
It should be noted that all of these diseases are the leading causes of illness and death in Panama. In addition, experts point out that the use of tobacco products can also damage sexual and reproductive health, leading to repeated abortions, low birth weight babies, premature births and sexual impotence.
According to MINSA, tobacco use kills an average of 2,000 people a year in Panama, and the state must invest nearly $400 million annually to address health damage from use and exposure to tobacco smoke. .
This makes it critical to invest in decision-making to develop and analyze measures and strategies for tobacco control applicable at the global, regional and local levels.