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Head of the National HIV/STI Programme, Dr. Kevin Harvey, has highlighted the fact that the life expectancy for HIV-positive persons, who are receiving proper treatment, is "exactly the same" as for an HIV-negative person. Dr. Harvey was addressing a consultation with private sector leaders to discuss the establishment of a Foundation to ensure the financial sustainability of Jamaica's HIV programme,...

Young people in Portland are being urged to come out in their numbers for the National Council on Drug Abuse's (NCDA) drug sensitization and healthy lifestyle fair, which will be held on Thursday (November 25) on the Buff Bay Hospital grounds in Portland. The event, which will begin at 10:30 a.m., is part of activities to mark Drug Awareness Month...

The Government will be re-examining the institutional arrangement for the management of reproductive Health in the public health sector. Speaking on Monday, November 22, at the ground breaking for the expansion of the Hugh Wynter Fertility Management Unit at the University Hospital of the West Indies, Minister of Health, Hon. Rudyard Spencer informed that this responsibility currently resides with the...

The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) disclosed Saturday (November 20) that Prime Minister Bruce Golding has given instructions for mobilization of a team of Jamaican medical and support personnel for deployment to Haiti. The team will assist in combating the cholera epidemic now ravaging that country. Official reports indicate that more than 1,000 persons have died, and over 15,000...

Some 51 Cuban nurses are to arrive in Jamaica by January to ease the shortage at public health facilities across the island. Health Minister. Hon. Rudyard Spencer, who made the disclosure on Thursday November 18, said that the nurses will be placed mainly in primary health care facilities. He was speaking on day-one of a one-week budget preparation retreat at...

Minister of Health, Hon. Rudyard Spencer, has pledged to continue to vigorously pursue extra budgetary support for the health services. He gave the assurance on November 18 at the start of a one-week budget preparation retreat at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, which is being attended by key stakeholders in the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of...

The Ministry of Health has saved some $386 million in the procurement of pharmaceutical and medical supplies since the start of the financial year, Health Minister, Hon. Rudyard Spencer, has disclosed. Mr. Spencer said the savings were accrued through the implementation of cost efficient policies across the pharmacy service in the public health sector, including the use of less expensive...

Two health institutions in western Jamaica are to receive medical supplies and furniture valued at US$325,000 (J$27.6 million). The items are being donated to the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay, St. James and the Falmouth Hospital, in Trelawny, by the Jamaican organisation of New Jersey (John J) and Foster Dublin and Associates, a consulting firm based in Highland Park,...

The Ministry of Health will be hosting a budget retreat which will involve a series of workshops to assist all entities to meet the guidelines established by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service in preparation for the 2011/2012 budget. The opening session of the Retreat will take place on Thursday, November 18, 2010 at the Jamaica Conference Centre...

The Ministry of Health would like to clarify statements in the media regarding the number of positions to be made redundant, as a result of the merger of the National Health Fund (NHF) and Health Corporation Limited (HCL). Minister of Health, the Hon Rudyard Spencer Minister of Health, Hon. Rudyard Spencer, had informed Parliament that over 180 positions would be...

Some 25,000 newborns in the parishes of Manchester, Clarendon and St. Elizabeth have been screened for sickle cell disease under the Sickle Cell Trust's Manchester Project. In addition, 2,600 high school students in Manchester and Clarendon are being tested for the trait each year, as the Trust works to reduce the incidence of the disease in Jamaica. The $44 million...

The London based medical charity, Chain of Hope, which will make its 15th surgical mission to Jamaica next week, recently launched a