NCD Epidemic declared in US Affiliated Pacific Islands

The declaration directs the PIHOA Secretariat to partner with a wide variety of groups to develop a regional NCD policy that will help coordinate partners and resources more effectively and make an array of recommendations to donors, health agencies, legislatures, regional associations, traditional leaders, community- and faith-based groups, and other sectors besides health, including agriculture, education, and trade.

The Pacific Island Health Officers Association (PIHOA) is a non-profit organization led by the Ministers, Secretaries, and Directors of Health of the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI).  The USAPI include the three U.S. Flag Territories of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa, and the three Freely Associated States (independent nations in a special compact relationship with the United States) of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia (Pohnpei, Kosrae, Chuuk, and Yap).  The USAPI are populated by more than 500,000 people who live on hundreds of islands and atolls spanning millions of square miles of ocean and crossing five Pacific time zones. PIHOA’s mission is to improve the health and well-being of USAPI communities by providing, through consensus, a unified credible voice on health issues of regional significance.