Minister to launch public health counselling service today

Chaminda Perera

Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena will launch a public health counseling service. This will be Sri Lanka for the first time.

The public can seek the service by dialing 1948 from their telephones or mobile phones free.

They will be replied within few minutes by the Ministry staff. According to a Ministry spokesman, the staff will have to obtain the advices from the consultants in some instances and the public would be replied within a very short time in such cases.

This service will be launched by the Health Minister at the National Blood Centre at Narahenpita today to mark the International No Tobacco Day which is today.

The Health Ministry said more than 400 people die from Non Communicable Diseases which are mainly caused by smoking.

According to Health Ministry statistics, 12 percent of national income is derived from the taxes from tobacco related products but the Government has to spend more than 22 percent of the national income to treat the NCDs mainly caused by tobacco use and alcohol related products.

The use of tobacco related products is closely interrelated with a number of NCDs such as cancer, strokes, high blood pressure and cardiac diseases.

Sri Lanka is the first country that signed the Tobacco and Alcohol Control Charter of the WHO from the Asian region.