Acknowledgements Mr. Speaker, I am privileged to be a Member of this Honorable House and to represent the people of Jamaica as their Minister of Health. I wish to thank the Most Hon. Prime Minister for the confidence she reposed in me with such an important portfolio. I am grateful to the staff of the Ministry of Health including the...

The government is putting several strategies in place to tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs), also called lifestyle illnesses. These conditions are responsible for the majority of deaths locally, and are also putting a strain on the public purse, costing the government billions of dollars per year to provide treatment.  According to Health Minister, Hon. Dr. Fenton Ferguson, chronic conditions such as...

Positive health interventions have resulted in a lengthening of the life-span of our population. Life expectancy at birth in the 1940s was 52.9; today it is 71.5 for males and 75 for females in an ageing population that is growing at a faster pace than the other segments of the population. It is fitting that the theme for World Health...

KINGSTON — The tobacco control bill, which seeks to combat the use and consequences of tobacco products, will soon be put before Parliament. “I expect, within three weeks, to have the matter placed before the Parliament and we would have had the framework tobacco legislation in place. The Chief Parliamentary Council is making the final amendments to the documents after...

MANDEVILLE — Mayfield All Age School lifted one of several trophies presented at the 2011 St. Elizabeth Health Department’s public awareness campaign against smoking exposition, at the school on Tuesday May 31. The trophy was one of several awarded by the health department at the exposition staged to celebrate World No Tobacco Day under the theme “I will do what...

Director General of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), Ronald Jackson, said on November 3, that his office could begin recommending voluntary evacuation for persons in flood prone areas as soon as this evening. He was addressing a press conference called to discuss evacuation procedures and the opening of shelters, in light of Tropical Depression Tomas, at...

Over the last five years, the world has witnessed the greatest and fastest migration into cities and towns. In 2007, for the first time in history, over half of the world's population lived in cities. It is estimated that by 2030, six out of every 10 persons across the world will be living in urban areas. This phenomenon continues to...

A public education campaign, which aims to stop cigarette smoking within the designated area of Emancipation Square, in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, will begin this week. The campaign will be spearheaded by the Smoke Free Action Coalition, in collaboration with the St. Catherine Parish Council. Emancipation Square was recently declared a smoke free zone by Mayor of Spanish Town, Dr....

A ban on cigarette smoking will shortly be introduced within the entire designated area of Emancipation Square in Spanish Town, St. Catherine. The Square will be the first Smokefree Square in the Caribbean, when a declaration is officially unveiled in March. The initiative is a joint project of the Smoke Free Action Coalition in Spanish Town and the St. Catherine...

Jamaican-born Margarett Best has always been a fighter. When she was only 11 years old, her mother, May Gwendolyn, died. Two years later she left her home in May Pen, Clarendon along with her oldest sister, Clare, who had cared for her since her mom's death, to join an older sister, Ferlena, and her great uncle, Ivan Orr, in Detroit,...

Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health and Environment, Dr. Sheila Campbell-Forrester, has said that the Schools Blood Drive Competition will be a critical component in promoting the habit of voluntary blood donation among persons aged 17 years and older. "In targeting young people, we are trying to have a consistent source of blood donors," Dr. Campbell-Forrester said during...

Chief Medical Officer (CMO), in the Ministry of Health and Environment, Dr. Sheila Campbell-Forrester, has issued an appeal to Jamaicans, to take responsibility for their health and come together to stop the current scourge of chronic non-communicable diseases, that have been affecting the region. Delivering the Message for Caribbean Wellness Day (September 13), Dr. Campbell-Forrester revealed that thousands of Caribbean...