“Partnering for Prevention Makes Common Cent$” is the theme behind the 5th Annual Bilateral Health Summit that began yesterday with a traditional ava ceremony to welcome the participants, who are from both Samoas.

In attendance at the summit, which is taking place at the Governor H. Rex Lee Auditorium,  are Ministers from the Samoa Government, local lawmakers, members of the hospital board, educators, research scientists and Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga.

The two-day summit will be filled with health presentations from local health officials and physicians, along with those from Samoa.  Some of the planned discussions will involve the evolution of non communicable disease, cancer updates in the territory and EBOLA readiness, along with other pressing health related issues. The summit is hosted by the Department of Health, its partners and the American Samoa Government.

Masters of Ceremonies for the event are Tapa’au Dr. Danny Aga, Dean/Director of ASCC Land Grant/Community Natural Resources and Dr. Naseri Aitaoto, Community Health Centers physician with the ASG Department of Health.

DOH Director, Motusa Tuileama Nua welcomed guests and participants to the summit, and emphasized that while Samoans are “into turkey tails and pork (size 2)”, he said that, hopefully, after the summit the mindset of the people will change and they will “stay away” from these Samoan meals.

The Summit’s keynote speaker was the hospital’s new Chief Executive Officer, Taufete’e John Faumuina, who noted that no government wants to see its people suffering because of poor health conditions. He stated, “Healthcare is a top priority of our government as reflected in our budget appropriations.”

Taufete’e said prevention is better than cure and that is being advocated by the actions taken at the summit “as we strive to develop preventative programs to better serve the health needs of our people.”  He also said, “Our islands are very susceptible to communicable diseases because of logistics and constant migrations and we need to work and pull our resources together to prevent the influx of diseases to our shores.”

He noted that much has been discussed regarding the health issues of the community in previous summits and he hopes that these topics will be followed-up at this summit.

“If need be, amend existing legislation—or introduce new ones for better implementation of the work you do,” he advised the crowd, which included lawmakers.

 “While Communicable Diseases have always been a constant problem, non-communicable diseases are posing equal problems as well and are a threat to the lives of our people. Hypertension, diabetes, and cancer for example are some of the constant challenges facing health officials and the medical professions.”

The Hospital CEO said that the renal dialysis unit at LBJ has just completed its extension phase, bringing the total number of dialysis machines to 37 from16, which they started with over ten years ago.  He said the number of shifts have also been increased due to more dialysis patients, and this is a costly operation.

He said for the first time the hospital and the Department of Health have developed and shared a health database in order to better combat health issues that come our way, and this data can be shared, if it is not already being done, with our counterparts in Samoa.

“I ask the health officials and the medical profession from the two Samoas to keep up the good and hard work for the sake of our people.  If less people get sick, it means less hospital visits and less cost to LBJ,” said Taufete’e.

The summit ends today with the demonstration of preparations surrounding an EBOLA case arrival, and this will be conducted behind the Lee Auditorium.