Healthy Caribbean 2008 - A Wellness Revolution
Conference
16th - 18th October 2008 Accra Beach Hotel & Resort, Christ Church, Barbados
The Healthy Caribbean
2008 conference is aimed at mobilising civil society and will bring
together a wide cross section of the Caribbean community, including
the many sectors of civil society, educators, government, and
business, to address in a highly participatory and interactive
workshop format, this most burdensome, yet most preventable, epidemic
of our times: chronic disease. The conference is being held at Accra
Beach Hotel & Resort, Christ Church, Barbados.
Chronic diseases are the number
one cause of premature death and reduced quality of life in the
Caribbean. The Pan American Health Organization, the InterAmerican
Heart Foundation and the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados
have organized this Healthy Caribbean 2008 conference to be held
16th-18th October, 2008, in Barbados to bring together policy
makers and opinion leaders capable of changing the course of this
epidemic.
This conference follows the ground breaking action of Heads of
Government of the Caribbean Community who met on 15th September, 2007,
and issued the “Declaration of Port of Spain; Uniting to stop the
epidemic of Chronic Non Communicable Diseases”. This action
signalled the political will at the highest level to promote
policies throughout the Caribbean that favour prevention and
enhanced treatment of chronic diseases.
The underlying causes of these diseases are physical
inactivity, poor diet and tobacco use, as well as lack of
treatment and control of diabetes, dyslipideamias, hypertension
and other conditions, which contribute to heart disease, stroke,
lung disease and many cancers.
International and regional leaders in
the field of chronic disease prevention and treatment will attend the
conference and assist in the attaining of conference objectives. The
principal outcomes from the conference will include a preliminary
Caribbean Civil Society plan to tackle chronic diseases over the next
2 - 5 years, with specific attention aimed at improved identification
and treatment of diabetes, dyslipideamias and hypertension throughout
the Caribbean.
Highlights of the conference will
include the delivery of the InterAmerican Heart Foundation Science of
Peace Lecture and the presentation of the Science of Peace Award to
Sir George Alleyne, Chancellor of the University of the West Indies,
and the presentation of the 5th InterAmerican Journalism Contest
Awards on Tobacco Control.
