Snowdan: Rural health education needed

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KUCHING: A state assemblyman has suggested to the health authorities to improve their health awareness programmes in rural areas so that the message gets across to the rural folk.

Snowdan (third right) and others jointly cut the union’s anniversary cake.

Balai Ringin assemblyman Snowdan Lawan said this is in view of the increasing number of rural folks affected by communicable and non-communicable diseases due to change of lifestyle and surroundings.

As such, he believes a holistic approach with emphasis on quality health education which suits the multi-racial and multi-cultural society will be the best way to educate the people on disease prevention and eradication.

“Today, diseases harming humans are not only those which are infectious such as typhoid and malaria, but also non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension which are caused by our lifestyle and unhealthy eating habits. Therefore, continuous prevention activities are important,” he said when officiating at the Sarawak Health Inspectors Union 25th anniversary dinner recently.

On health inspectors, Snowdan noted that those holding the post are now ranked as ‘Pegawai Kesihatan Persekitaran (PKP)’ and ‘Penolong Pegawai Kesihatan Persekitaran (PPKP)’.

While acknowledging the jobs as PKP and PPKP are now more challenging due to emergence of many diseases in this modern era, he hoped they would be more professional in their duties instead of just waiting for orders.

He also called on the public to work together with the PKP and PPKP to keep the environment clean and eradicate diseases. During the function, Snowdan announced a grant of RM10,000 for the Sarawak Health Inspectors Union.

Also present at the function were Kuching division health officer Dr Kamaruddin Lajim representing Sarawak Health Department, union president Sabri Sahari, Kuching Public Health College director Niponi Undek, National Inspectorate and Legal Unit chief Ideris
Mohamad and Sarawak Environmental Health head Akbar Bedul.