21 WORLD GASTROENTEROLOGY NEWS JULY 2016 Editorial | Expert Point of View | Gastro 2016: EGHS-WGO | WDHD News | WGO & WGOF News | WGO Global Guidelines | Calendar of Events World Digestive Health Day Celebrations in Myanmar Thein Myint, MBBS, MMedSc (Int.Med), MRCP, FRCP, Dr.MedSc(Gastroenterology) Professor and Head, Department of Gastroenterology Yangon General Hospital University of Medicine Yangon, Myanmar Many Myanmar people are concerned about diet, especially when they are ill. The most commons questions that people to ask after being examined by a doctor are “What should I eat?” and “What should I not eat?” In response to many enquiries and to increase awareness, we celebrate World Diges-tive Health Day (WDHD) at the Gas-troenterology Departments at Yangon General Hospital, Thingangyun San Pya Hospital, and Mandalay General Hospital. This year, in addition to an annual event, the first public talk on gastro-enterology was held at the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce (UMFCCI) on 29 May. About 700 people from Yangon and the districts of Myitkyina (Upper Myanmar), Taungoo (Central Myan-mar), and Mawlamyine (Lower Myan-mar) attended the talk. The audience included both non-medical persons and some with a medical background. There was an unexpectedly high at-tendance for a public talk in Myan-mar. Prior to the talk, the organizers had posted public advertisements in the press, on billboards, and on social networking sites (namely Facebook). Invitations had also been sent out (but were not limited to) the following groups of organizations and societies: students, patients, the fire brigade, Red Cross, Buddhist monasteries and other religious societies, pharmaceuti-cal companies, and reporters. Some audience members arrived at 6 am to secure seats. By the starting time of 9 am, the hall was overflowing as its capacity was 300-400 seats only and it had exceeded attendees expected for a health talk. The interviews were filmed on the day of the talk with national broadcasting channels Skynet and MRTV and were broadcasted on the following day. Radio interviews were also broadcast in the following days. WDHD was also highlighted in the national newspaper The New Light of Myanmar, which featured an article on Diet and the Gut by Professor Thein Myint on 29 May. The Q&A session at the end of the talk was found to be very effective. Audience members were keen to ask questions on diet and GI diseases, which were answered by gastroenter-ologists. We also announced some trivia questions and gave out small souvenirs for the correct answers to make the Q&A session more engag-ing with the audience. Hence this one hour active session seemed barely enough and we were requested to do more public talks in Yangon and other cities in the near future. Audiences were impressed to learn that Myanmar is a member of the World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO) and they appreciated that quality standard medical facilities are now available in the country. The annual event was prepared by the Yangon General Hospital GI team on the topic of “Diet and the Gut.” It included a talk by Consul- Professor Thein Myint talking about Diet and Gut to the public on 29 May. tant Gastroenterologist Dr. Swe Mon
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