Posted: February 10, 2016. 5:31 p.m. CST.
By Dalila Ical: Health Minister Pablo Marin and H.E. Benjamin T.H. Ho, Ambassador of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to Belize, on behalf of their respective governments, today signed an Agreement on Cooperation in Public Health and Medical Skills. 
The Agreement will see the Republic of China (Taiwan) assist Belize in areas of health education, disease screening, clinical services and other technical support. A government press release states that the first major project under the new agreement is a “Capacity Building Project for the Prevention and Control of Chronic Renal Failure”. This project should address the growing number of patients with end stage renal failure in the country, says GOB, and aims to strengthen the screening program for high-risk persons for kidney disease.
The project will include training for nurses in “haemodialysis procedure in Belize, training for haemodialysis technicians and community health workers, as well as the development and production of public education materials”.
The issue is of importance to the government as statistics show that in 2014 “diseases of the heart (13%) and diabetes (9.5%) rank within the top three (3) causes of mortality in Belize. One of the risk factors for these NCDs is obesity, therefore it is important to address this factor through the promotion of healthy life style practices.”
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