By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN life expectancy at birth is on the decline for the first time in history, PAHO officials revealed yesterday.

Preliminary data highlights violent crime and non-communicable diseases as the two major proponents of the historic decline, according to Dr Gerry Eijkemans, the Pan American Health Organisation’s country representative for the Bahamas and the Turks & Caicos.

Dr Eijkemans made the revelation as she called for greater inclusion of the health sector at a citizen security workshop hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank.

She underscored the need for a comprehensive strategy to jointly address the health and social ills that plague communities known to be criminal hot-spots.

The data has not yet been published, according to officials, who estimate an official release on findings early next month.

Dr Eijkemans said: “Citizen security is an issue that involves all sectors and health has a very important role to play. The analog between public health and how you prevent violence is very, very strong. We need to get our health people involved in the very early stages of prevention. 

“We as physicians, we always think of health as someone comes to the hospital and you treat them, but that is the very end when you have lost the battle. We need to get more in the forefront, more involved in educating, in working with the people.”

Dr Eijkemans said: “We’re seeing from the data in the Bahamas that, like in many other countries, for the first time life expectancy is going down, that means that the children that are born now are living shorter than their parents. 

She said: “This is the first time in history and this is because of two reasons: non-communicable diseases, and violent crime, and so we have a huge opportunity as a health sector to work with education, with Urban Renewal, with the other sectors to move on small areas.”

She added: “Let’s work in teams and let’s make sure that early child development is taking into account how do you learn to interact, but also how do you learn to eat.”

Life expectancy at birth (LEB) reflects the overall mortality level of a population.

In 2011, the World Health Organisation listed the Bahamas’ total LEB at 75 years, with men at 72 years, and women at 78 years.

The WHO praised significant improvements in the health status of the population over the last decade in a Country Cooperation Strategy report last year. The report pointed to reductions in infant mortality rates; vaccine preventable diseases; and HIV/AIDS related deaths.

Dr Eijkemans said: “When I came [to the Bahamas], I came in the middle of the dengue fever outbreak and I started to map that and I saw these are all areas where we have the highest prevalence of HIV, where we have the highest prevalence of violence, where you have also the people whose children are already obese. 

“We have childhood obesity which leads in older age to diabetes, hypertension, et cetera. So these are the same people, the same areas we’re talking about, and the strategy should not be diverse. 

She added: “There should be one strategy that takes into account all those elements and that brings a more comprehensive way of acting on this matter.”

The IDB workshop: “Crime and Violence in The Bahamas: Data-Driven Policies for Effective Citizen Security”, comprised of presentations on preventative strategies and policing interventions in the region as stakeholders engaged in brainstorming sessions to map solutions to security challenges in the Bahamas.