The constitutional court of Colombia has ordered the government to campaign against obesity and provide operations for the disorder, reported local media on Wednesday.
According to Caracol Radio, the court told the Ministry of Health to enforce the law saying obesity is a public health problem, and urged the ministry to conduct public awareness campaigns.
The court also found that government healthcare providers (the EPS system) were ignoring their duty to provide obesity-related health services such as gastric bypass operations.
The EPS system is notorious for failing to provide the required health services and people often turn to the constitutional court to force it to provide legally mandated healthcare.
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The Constitutional Court has previously ordered EPS providers to offer gastric bypass operations as part of their basic healthcare plan.
According to the Ministry of Health, 50% of Colombians are overweight and 16.5% are classified as obese.
More: Half of Colombians are overweight: Study
