Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Christopher Tufton, is imploring Jamaicans to take action to rid their surroundings of breeding sites for the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits the Zika virus. “Too often, unfortunately, we assist in providing very fertile breeding ground for this mosquito. This means that we all have to take action,” he said. “Anything that creates the environment for...

Minister of Health, Dr. Christopher Tufton says the Ministry is aware and is taking steps to ease the current shortage of specialist nurses in public health sector. The renewed concern comes in light of a local recruitment drive for specialist nurses for overseas employment. Dr. Tufton points out that this happens from time to time as Jamaican nurses, particularly specialist...

Minister of Health, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, is calling for the full cooperation and participation of citizens in eradicating mosquitoes that transmit diseases such as Zika, dengue and chikungunya. He said that all Jamaicans have an important role to play in keeping these vectors at bay, by destroying their breeding sites. Dr. Tufton was speaking at the launch ceremony...

Minister of Health, Dr. Christopher Tufton encouraged citizens to get involved in the interest of protecting their communities from vector-borne illnesses such as Zika, Dengue and Chikungunya during the Operation Mosquito Search and Destroy cleanup campaign that was held in St. Ann. Minister Tufton was speaking at the launch ceremony held on Saturday, March 12, 2016, at the Ocean Village...

Frontline health workers are being encouraged to get vaccinated to protect themselves against the Influenza A (H1N1) virus. This call comes from Health Minister, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, who has assured that Jamaica has an adequate supply of the vaccine, which is being further shored up. “We have brought in another 2,000 doses from Trinidad (and Tobago), and Belize,...

The Clinical Virology Laboratory in the Department of Microbiology, University of the West Indies is now equipped for testing dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses after a ten (10) million dollar upgrade was done to the Laboratory. A state of the art real-time thermal equipment was acquired with the capacity to test 96 samples and controls within 2 hours.  This machine...

United States Ambassador to Jamaica His Excellency Luis G. Moreno paid a courtesy call on Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton today at the Ministry of Health to discuss further strengthening collaborations with Jamaica and the United States. Ambassador Moreno said “the United States is one of the closest collaborators with Jamaica and there is great value in the partnerships between...