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Poverty to Prosperity
Budget Presentation
Gordon House March 19, 2015
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In 2010, only 19% had two or more chronic non-communicable diseases, in 2012 36.4%
reported having two or more such diseases. Hypertension affected 11.6% of respondents
and is the most prevalent of the chronic diseases followed by Asthma at 5.2%. Both
diseases showed signs of increase over 2010.
Mr. Speaker, the cost of health care due to accidents, and violence is significant and
remains a cause for concern. The 10-19 age group accounted for almost a quarter of all
injuries dealt with in the public health system and 65.7% of all cases of sexual assault.
Adolescents accounted for 20% of antenatal and postnatal visits to health facilities. And the
adolescent birth rate is 77 per 1000 births.
Mr. Speaker, accidents, violence, and adolescent pregnancies are all preventable costs on
our health care system. Again this is a problem of personal responsibility, more so, a
problem of parental responsibility. Our children are being maimed and injured often by
other children; our teenage girls are being sexually harassed (65.7% of all cases) usually by
adults, and as said before, sometimes family members. We must take a hard line on this.
We were happy to observe the sustained decline in the adolescent mother birth rate; from
129 per thousand in 1985 to 77.3 per thousand in 2010.
It is still too high. The country must be unequivocal in its position against
adolescent pregnancy.
We must encourage our young girls to stay in school longer, secure an income and then
have the children they can afford.
This is critical to moving our poeple from Poverty
to Prosperity.