Health

Minister highlights necessity of Public Health Act review

March 12, 2020 12:52 pm

Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete

There is an urgent need to review the current Public Health Act to clearly outline ways to address health issues and deal with diseases in this day and age.

Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete says a lot of changes have happened over the years and a review of the Act is mandatory.

Dr. Waqainabete adds with new diseases emerging over the past 50-years, it’s critical that Fiji’s Public Health Act is updated accordingly.

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“When this public health act was done many years ago, 50-years ago and at that time there was no H1N1, there was no COVID-19, measles was probably rampant then. Things have significantly changed since then”.

The Health Minister says our evolving lifestyles over the decades is another reason why the current Act needs to be reviewed.

“The ways of travel back then was some air travel but there was a lot of sea travel. Traveling has now changed and there weren’t a lot of food that were packaged. Those are the reason why we’re reviewing the act which needed to be done”.

The Ministry of Health is now undertaking public consultations around the country to gather relevant submissions that may be used to assist with reviewing the antiquated legislation.