Health
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World AIDS Day: opportunity for reflection, resolution – Secretary-General
MESSAGE BY SECRETARY-GENERAL, CARICOM, AMBASSADOR IRWIN LAROCQUE, ON THE OCCASION OF WORLD AIDS DAY 2014 World AIDS Day provides an opportunity for reflection and resolution. Not long ago an affliction with HIV and AIDS was literally a death sentence. Today, thanks to scientific breakthroughs and access to treatment, people with HIV and AIDS are living longer and leading productive lives. Yet there are…
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Chikungunya vaccine successful in clinical trial
VIENNA, Austria I November 23, 2014 I The Austrian biotech company Themis Bioscience GmbH in collaboration with the Institut Pasteur (Paris, France) have developed a prophylactic vaccine against chikungunya.The vaccine appears to be safe, and produced an immune response that researchers suspect would protect people against infection. The Vienna-based biotech company Themis Bioscience GmbH (‘Themis’) has received final results of…
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Ebola survivors’ blood to treat deadly disease
Anastassia Cunningham, Health Coordinator The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that the blood of patients who recover from the deadly Ebola virus could be used to treat those still suffering from the disease. Like other infections, infected humans produce antibodies in the blood in an attempt to fight off an Ebola attack. According to scientific theory, those antibodies can…
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Statement by Ambassador Irwin Larocque, Secretary-General Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on the Occasion of Caribbean Wellness Day 13 September 2014
The celebration of Caribbean Wellness Day continually reminds us of that historic moment when our Heads of Government pioneered that significant policy initiative known as the Declaration of Port-of-Spain on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). On the basis of scientific facts they raised their voices acknowledging that NCDs could imperil our economies like no other known health issue. The Declaration has the…
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Health Minister notes impact of diabetes, hypertension, and obesity
Health Minister Dr. Fenton Ferguson says the national burden posed by non-communicable diseases (NCD) constitute a major public health challenge, which undermines the country's social and economic development. Dr. Ferguson said recent national surveys showed an increase in the major behavioural risk factors and NCDs, such as hypertension, obesity and diabetes, among adults. The Minister emphasised that it is in…
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Guyana’s investment in HIV/AIDS battle paying off- NAPS Director
Guyana’s prevalence rate of HIV has increased but that now indicates that more people are living rather than dying of the disease due to aggressive public education and greater access to treatment and care, Head of the National AIDS Programme Secretariat, Dr. Shanti Singh said. Singh said latest research shows that the prevalence rate is 1.4 percent or 7,700 persons…
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Wellness revolution’ continues at CARICOM Secretariat
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Headquarters of the Caribbean Community, the CARICOM Secretariat on Monday commenced a week of activities to commemorate Caribbean Wellness Day (CWD) 2014 and to sustain the ‘wellness revolution’ that began in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in September 2007. CWD will be observed on 13 September 2014. Ambassador Manorma Soeknandan, Deputy Secretary-General…
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Dominica screens West Africa students for Ebola Disease
Caribbean news. ROSEAU, Dominica (CMC)– Dominica says while it will not impose a travel ban on people coming from Africa, it will screen new students arriving here from West Africa where an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus has resulted in more than a thousand deaths. Chief Medical Officer, Dr David Johnson, speaking on the state-owned DBS radio, said that…
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Risk of Ebola in the Caribbean “Low”
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, August 06, 2014: The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) says the risk of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) being imported to the Caribbean is low. Executive Director of CARPHA, Dr. C. James Hospedales said “There have been no confirmed cases of Ebola in the Caribbean, and overall, the risk of becoming infected with the Ebola virus…
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COHSOD Endorses Holistic Strategy to Reduce Adolescent Pregnancy in the Caribbean
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) CARICOM’s Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) has approved a Strategy and Plan to reduce the number of adolescent pregnancies in each country of the English- and Dutch speaking Caribbean by at least 20 %, over the five year period 2014 – 2019. The plan was developed by a multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary Regional…
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