Brazzaville, 23 June 2015 - The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, will be in Mauritius from 24-26 June 2015 to address the Fifth meeting of African Ministers of Health of Small Islands Developing States (SIDS).

The meeting, which will be attended by Health Ministers from Cape Verde, Comoros, Seychelles, Sao Tome & Principe, Mauritius and other public health experts is aimed at reviewing progress made during the past few years and agreeing on concrete actions to improve the health of people in each of these countries.

Some of the issues to be discussed are:

• Chronic non-communicable diseases – a leading cause of illness and death
• Health security and information sharing
• Introduction of Human papilloma virus vaccine
• Universal Health coverage
• Cooperation and partnership among the SIDS
• Progress made in the implementation of the Seychelles Declaration

Small Island Developing States of the African Region are vulnerable to environmental degradation, climate change and natural disasters. They also experience increasing burden of non-communicable diseases, high burden of communicable diseases such as Malaria, dengue and Chikungunya, brain drain of qualified health workers, among others.

In an effort to address the common health challenges faced by SIDS, WHO Regional Office for Africa supported the establishment of a Regional SIDS forum in 2006 with membership from; Cape Verde, Comoros, Mauritius, São Tome and Principe and Seychelles.

This forum offers an opportunity for the SIDS to specifically address health related vulnerabilities, build resilience and sustainability. It also serves as a unique platform to galvanize partnerships for action on sustainable health development among them.

Previous meetings of SIDS have resulted in 2 declarations (Seychelles 2006, Cape Verde 2009) and 2 final communiqués (Moroni 2011 and Sao Tome & Principe 2013) with sets of recommendations to address common Health challenges through strengthened collaboration within SIDS.

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For additional information, please contact:

Collins Boakye-Agyemang: boakyeagyemangc [at] who.int