(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago, the Hon. Patrick Manning, will host a meeting of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) next week to launch a watershed regional campaign against chronic diseases.
The one-day summit, being organised by the CARICOM Secretariat in partnership with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO), will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Port of Spain on Saturday September 15, beginning at 9.00 a.m.
In addition to Prime Minister Manning, the conference will be addressed by the Chairman of CARICOM, the Rt. Hon. Owen Arthur, Prime Minister of Barbados; CARICOM Head of Government with responsibility for Health (including HIV/AIDS) and Human Resource Development, the Hon. Dr Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St Kitts & Nevis; and the Secretary-General of CARICOM, Mr Edwin Carrington.
Their call will be for regional unity to stop the epidemic of chronic non-communicable lifestyle diseases, which account for more than half the incidence of death and disease in the CARICOM region.
The targeted disorders include cardiovascular diseases (high blood pressure, coronary heart diseases and stroke), diabetes and some forms of cancer. Among the risk factors identified are obesity, unhealthy food choices, physical inactivity, high cholesterol and tobacco use.
The assault on chronic diseases comes in the wake of the recommendations of a Caribbean Commission on Health and Development (CCHD), established by the CARICOM Heads of Government in 2003. The CCHD grew out of a task force appointed in 2001 to formulate a blueprint of strategies to give effect to a declaration by the Heads of Government that “The Health of the Region is the Wealth of the Region”.
The CCHD, as well as reasserting the need for better food choices and greater physical activity on the part of Caribbean populations, advocated public policy measures by Caribbean Governments to modulate the environment, closer regulation of food imports and licensing laws to ensure that consumers know the contents of the foods they eat and that food security is pursued in the context of incentives for local production of the fruits, vegetables and whole grains required for a healthy diet.
3 September, 2007
Contact:
Clare Forrester
antoye@yahoo.com
Tel.: (876) 331-8992
