LAUTEM, 22 july 2022 (TATOLI) – The Ministry of Health (MoH), together with the World Health Organisation (WHO), has launched a Tobacco Cessation Centre in Lautem Municipality to support smokers quitting tobacco to reduce the risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Health Minister, Élia dos Reis Amaral said that effective tobacco control is key to rapid progress in the reduction of non-communicable diseases.
“Quitting smoking would lead to reducing the risk of getting non-communicable diseases (NCDs) – including cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, cancer, hypertension, and so on,” Minister Amaral said at the launch of the Lautem Tobacco Cessation Centre, in Lautem municipality, on saturday.
She said the creation of the center was part of the Government’s commitment to providing smoking cessation counseling to Timorese smokers in order to achieve Timor-Leste’s goal of ensuring healthy Timorese people in a healthy Timor-Leste.
At the same place, the WHO Representative to Timor-Leste, Arvind Mathur, said that the opening of the Lautem Tobacco Cessation Centre is extremely important as it provides integrated services to all patients seeking treatment at the Lautem Community Health Centre.
“The Lautem Tobacco Cessation Centre will now also provide Tobacco Replacement Therapy, which means that people who are smokers today and want to quit tobacco smoking can be given what is called Nicotine Replacement Trophy,” Mathur said. “The Tobacco Cessation Centre is going to help people quit smoking in Lautem. Tobacco Quitters Are Winners.”
He said the Tobacco Cessation Centre is equipped with adequate tools to screen any patient for non-communicable diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems, stroke, etc: “The doctors and nurses can screen anyone who visits the Lautem Community Health Centre, identify and refer them to the specialist so that they can have treatment.”
“So, Tobacco Cessation Centre is an integrated center with the overall health service delivery, particularly for non-communicable diseases. We will further link it with the Mental Health Services as well,” Mathur added.
The center was established with financial and technical assistance from WHO.
“WHO has been a proponent of implementing pro-health taxes on products that have a detrimental impact on public health, such as tobacco, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs),” said Mathur.
According to the WHO, more than 8 million people die from tobacco use globally every year. Most tobacco-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, which are often targets of intensive tobacco industry interference and marketing.
Timor-Leste is one of the 20 countries in the world with high tobacco use rates, and among the five small island developing countries including Kiribati, Nauru, Tuvalu, and Solomon Islands, to have high tobacco use. A 2014 survey, conducted in Timor-Leste using a WHO method called STEPS, showed that the incidence of tobacco use in Timor-Leste was 48.6%.’
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges
