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.

email: healthycaribbean@hsfbarbados.org for more details.

 
 

The Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados The InterAmerican Heart Foundation Pan American Health Organization