On Friday March 13th ACAN held a street talk on health issues including a discussion by Dr Lanny Hobson on new strain of HIV discovered in Cuba that rapidly progresses to AIDS. The topic also took form of a question and answer segment with the director and CEO John C.Lake. Presentations on nutrition and its importance in chronic diseases and the high burden of kidney disease were given by Vernice Battick and Jennifer Gumbs respectively. The Health Planner in the Ministry of Health Mrs Maeza Demis have an overview of the Ministry of Health plans including the extension of the HIV Unit to cover other chronic non-communicable diseases. ACAN held its first health fair on January 28th with 260 participants, bringing the total number of free health checks to 2511 under coalition of various bodies including NHI, and St James Medical students and other NGO’s. The activist organization is sponsored by the Governor’s Office and plans to continue advocacy, patient outreach, health education, screenings, counselling and health fairs. An overseas Physician Dr Christopher Grubb an anaesthesiologist based in North Carolina, USA plans to partner with ACAN in an upcoming event.
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
