The Symposium was organized by the Communication and Media Department of the SCH under the patronage of HE Abdulla Bin Khalid Al Qahtani, Minister of Health and Secretary General of the SCH. The main topic of discussion focused on urbanization and health. The Symposium was organized under the theme…"1000 cities, 1000 lives". A number of lectures were delivered in the Symposium. Participating parties were: Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning, Ministry of Interior represented by the Traffic department, Weil Cornell Medical College and Hamad Medical Corporation. This was in addition to doctors from the SCH, students from Weil Cornell and students from Qatari schools.
The activities started with a lecture on the time span between pregnancies delivered by the community medicine specialists, Dr. Maha Yousef Zainel. This was followed by a lecture on emergency preparedness, given by Dr. Waleed Abu Jalala, emergency consultant at HMC. Brig. Mohamed Sa’ad Al Kharji, Director of Traffic Department, gave a lecture on road traffic and injury prevention. Dr. Laith Abu Raddad, from Weil Cornell, presented a lecture on urban environments and social constraints to health. Dr. Mohamed Ahmed Ali, Head of Occupational Health at the SCH, discussed the issue of drinking water in Qatar. Dr. Jassim Al Jaidah, Director of Food Control at the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning, put forward the issue of health conditions on food stuff. Dr. Yousef Abdulla, Community Medicine Specialist at the SCH, talked about the promotion of the healthy life pattern. Dr. Wala’a Fattah from the Non-communicable Diseases at the SCH, gave a lecture on the burden posed by the non-communicable diseases. Dr. Fatima Al Sadiq, from Community Medicine lectured about health constraints.
At the beginning of the Symposium, Dr. Salih Al Marri, Assistant Secretary General for Health Affairs read an address by HE Abdulla Bin Khalid Al Qahtani, Minister of Health. He pointed out to the vital importance of the issues discussed by the Symposium regarding the issue of urbanization and health, and the mutual impact of each one of them on the other. He added " Qatar, under the leadership of HH the Emir and HH the Heir Apparent, has made great advance in improving healthcare and achieving socio economic development". H E pointed that these achievements were deeply embedded in the country’s constitution which stresses the need for public healthcare and provision of the means for prevention and treatment of diseases and epidemics.
HE the Minister explained that all those steps were based on the principles set out by Qatar National Vision 2030, considering the protection of environment as a main pillar of the development process. He added…"the symposium comes within the framework of Qatar celebrations of the World Health Day, which constitutes an opportunity that brings together all sectors with the objective of promoting development, providing health services, protecting the environment and achieving the socio economic development at large".
HE the Minister also drew the attention to the importance of such events which represented make people acquainted with the danger elements accompanying urbanization, and try to review their eating attitudes, in addition to the practice of physical exercise.
In a recorded address by Dr. Hussein A. Al Gezairy, Regional Director for the WHO Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), he mentioned that the results of EMRO’s studies pointed to the increase in child and maternity mortality rates, mental disorders including depression, high rate of malnutrition and bias towards male children in education. This was considered an element of health inequality. EMRO has started to deal with this health inequality through launching an initiative focusing on the basic development needs. EMRO was among the first WHO regions to join regions to join the "healthy cities programme", which was the programme that successfully dealt with the health challenges posed by urbanisation. He added that eight of EMRO’s countries are currently applying the healthy cities programme, calling for the others to join in.
Dr. Al Gezairy said "Selection of the theme "Urbanisation and Health" comes in recognition of the impact of urbanisation on the health status regarding the individuals and the communities. It is expected that two thirds of the world population will be living in cities by 2030. So, improvement in health can no longer be the responsibility of governments and the WHO alone, as the contributions of individuals and communities become equally important.
In his lecture, Dr. Waleed Abu Jalala talked about the principles of managing disasters and the need to be prepared for emergencies, and the necessity to coordinate these principles.
Brig. Al Kharji gave an account of the traffic experience in the State of Qatar, and the efforts made to control accidents. The Traffic Department took several measures based on the Traffic Law No. (19) of 2007 which tightened penalties on violators. This resulted in bringing down the number of fatal and serious accidents by about 27%. He called upon all concerned parties to cooperate in the efforts of raisin awareness among the youth to be more careful and better drivers.
Dr. Wala’a pointed in her lecture to the shift in communicable diseases due to several reasons related to the socio economic trends prevailing in each country. She also talked about the increase of the chronic non-communicable diseases like diabetes and blood pressure.
Dr. Laith explained that health changes in the last seventy years were larger than they were in the previous 1000 years. The changes were generally positive due to the advancement in the scientific front. The rates of communicable diseases have come down; and so have the rates of child and infant mortality during the recent decades.
Dr. Mohamed Ali put forward a number of questions regarding the sources and quality of the drinking water in Qatar, pointing that the Government has been making all it can to apply the highest possible standards on the drinking water. He also raised the issue of the filtering procedures and whether they are up to the required standards.
At the end of the Symposium, Dr. Saleh Al Marri honoured the participant in the presence of Mr. Jassim Fakhroo, Director of Communication and Media. Mr. Fakhroo explained that this Symposium came as part of the SCH’s efforts to discuss all health issues related to people’s lives. It has also been corresponding with the World Health Day. He extended his thanks and appreciation for the support of HE Abdulla Bin Khalid Al Qahtani, Minister of Health to make this Symposium a success. He also thanked Ali Bin Ali Company for their support of this Sumposium. He added that the Communication and Media Department has issue a special magazine in the occasion of the World Health Day.
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