You may have seen the movie The Barber Shop, or, maybe you haven’t! But there are very few Caribbean nationals who, upon hearing the words barber shop, hairdressing parlour or beauty salon, don’t immediately think of Saturday morning or late evening gossip, with tongues wagging faster than the snip of sharp scissors. Whether the information [...]

The Caribbean is not fully prepared if the deadly influenza virus breaks out in the region – an occurrence that heath officials say could happen by 2010. As a result a number of organizations including the University of the West Indies (UWI) are working together to host a Caribbean Community Pandemic Influenza Workshop in Kingston, [...]

Avian (bird) flu is caused by influenza, a virus that occurs naturally among birds. There are different subtypes of these viruses because of changes in certain proteins (hemagglutinin [HA] and neuraminidase [NA]) on the surface of the influenza A virus and the way the proteins combine. Each combination represents a different subtype. All known subtypes [...]

A bus or taxi ride in Jamaica can be very risky.  Forget about dark parking lots and lonely, dark stretches of roads, the island’s buses and taxis, whether packed beyond capacity or filled with the prescribed numbers of commuters, are not as safe as they should be.  Grown women get fondled and sometimes raped. Young [...]

The  The Pan-Caribbean Regional Partnership on HIV/AIDS, PANCAP, recently unveiled its five-year work programme with six priority areas that will define its approach to tackling HIV/AIDS in the region.”We will seek to provide an enabling environment that fosters universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support services, continue to expand our coordinated multi-sectoral response [...]

Blue Mountains, from the Hollywell National Park taken on Oatley Mountain trail inside the park. Jamaica’s master plan for the management and protection of its protected areas – already two years behind its deadline – should be finalized by December 2008, according to Marilyn Headley, head of the Forestry Department and chairman of the Protected [...]

Killing rivers could kill livelihoods. (Panos) – Illegal river poisoning and run-off from coffee farms seem to be posing a serious threat to the health of rivers in the eastern Jamaica parish of StThomas as well as general public health in the area. Environmental groups such as the St. Thomas Environmental Protection Association, STEPA, are raising [...]