Local health officers handled monkeypox cases well – Health Minister

Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony has lauded the efforts of local medical practitioners in responding to monkeypox and hopes awareness for health and wellness will manifest through a fair for Caribbean Wellness Day.

While on the sidelines of an event on Monday, Dr Anthony told the News Room that the ministry has responded well to the two infectious disease cases and the ministry will continue its efforts to bring awareness to healthy lifestyles.

“Infectious diseases are nothing new you might have different diseases emerging at different times but the Ministry has systems in place to deal with any types of diseases.

“I think our system responded well in identifying the cases and taking the relevant actions,” the Health Minister said.

Noting that monkeypox and COVID-19 can cause further health complications, especially for persons who have underlying ailments, he said the ministry will continue to promote healthy living. One such activity will be through a symposium and health and wellness fair which will be held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre at Liliendaal during the week of Caribbean Wellness Day.

Caribbean Wellness Day will be observed on the second Saturday in September under the theme “Healthy Children in Healthy Environments.”

It is geared at increasing awareness and promoting activities to address non-communicable diseases. A non-communicable disease is a disease that is not transmissible directly from one person to another. They include Parkinson’s disease, autoimmune diseases, most heart diseases, cancers, diabetes, chronic kidney disease among others.

“We want to raise awareness pertaining to healthy living and wellness.

“There would be different parts of wellness that we would be highlighting, for example, we want people to understand what they need to monitor, so like their blood pressure and so forth, plus we want to explain to them about their nutrient, what they need to eat to stay healthy,” Dr Anthony said.

The Minister explained that the exercise and healthy diets are important, especially for persons who have comorbidities. He noted that the Ministry will engage persons during this fair to highlight the important steps persons must take to live a healthy life.

“We want to talk to them about staying fit and how you can exercise and what types of exercise are important, so it’s going to be a very comprehensive fair. We are hoping that when people go through the exhibits that we’ll have there, they will learn quite a lot of things pertaining to how they can keep themselves well,” the Minister said.