Qatar has achieved several feats in public health in the last 10 years including lowering traffic mortality and work-related injuries among others, noted a top Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) official on Monday.

“There have been many achievements in the past 10 years. The road traffic accidents have been brought down by 83% from 2016 to 2019. Qatar is the top country in the world to lower traffic mortality-from 26 per 100,000 people to less than five for 100,000 now,” stated, Sheikh Dr Mohamed bin Hamad al-Thani, director, Public Health at MoPH.

Sheikh Dr Mohamed was speaking on the sidelines of the first biennial Qatar Public Health Conference under the theme,"10 Years of Public Health: Looking Back, Moving Forward”, taking place at Ritz Carlton Doha. He also said that there will be a Doha Declaration for Public Health at the end of the two-day conference.

“Qatar’s rapid progress is illustrated in its performance in global rankings; in a five-year period, Qatar has moved from being ranked 27th to 5th in the Health Component of the Legatum prosperity index. This is a huge achievement, supported by all in Qatar, both Qatari and non-Qatari.We are proud of the contribution and value-addition from non-Qataris, as recognised by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani,” pointed out Sheikh Mohamed.

“In all areas of work, injuries have been brought down under 10%. The number of deaths from communicable diseases in Qatar is less than 6% of the affected and we are ahead of the USA and France in this regard,” continued Sheikh Mohamed.

The official said the list of achievements is varied and in several areas. “We have lowered obesity by 20 to 25% in the last eight years.We have zero death in Women’s Hospital from labour for the last three years. Infant mortality and child mortality is one of the lowest in the world,” he explained.

“We have also introduced many laws in the country such as breast feeding law, public health law, mental health law among others. These are laws to help us to go in the right direction and benefit every section of the society. We have many research papers published in leading journals,” he noted.

According to him, the conference aims to connect everyone related to public health and bring them under one platform.

“It is not just the work of the Ministry of Public Health but other ministries and institutes. The issues regarding labour, education, licensing, traffic safety among others, have to be taken care of by the ministries concerned and they have been brought into the conference,” he highlighted.

"The people have to be prepared and trained. We have brought here several experts from many countries and leading institutes. All these people have been brought under this platform to get the best results at a low cost,” he maintained.

He also referred to the challenges that the country is facing in the coming years. “In Qatar, in common with regional and global trends, we face many public health challenges, particularly the growing burden of non-communicable diseases. Qatar will also be on the global stage like never before, during the FIFA World Cup 2022,” added Sheikh Mohamed.



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