The Ministry of Health in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development will today launch a study designed to measure the health spending, including spending on HIV/AIDS, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).
The SVG National Health Accounts study will see participants being drawn from key government agencies, including the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Environment, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, and insurance companies.
The study will be launched with a half day-workshop facilitated by technical staff from the University of West Indies Centre for Health Economics and Abt Associates.
The objectives of the half-day workshop are to define and provide an overview of National Health Accounts; to discuss the main ways that National Health Accounts data can support health financing reforms in SVG; to present the timeline for the National Health Accounts implementation; and to review the important roles that key stakeholders can play to facilitate data collection and analysis.
The workshop will also seek to outline future expected results and their implications for ongoing and upcoming health financing initiatives in SVG.
I have just written this article below in another communication vehicle and thought it will fit very nicely into this National Health scenario.
Mosquitoes bite through cloths. I was wearing a woolen sock, when I was bitten by a mosquito. Caribbean governments are not serious about fighting mosquito borne disease.
I agree white clothing keeps them off, but anything black attracts them. They crawl like ants into crevices to escape being killed by insect repellants. I have a feeling they even get through mosquito nets.
I spent two weeks in hospital about ten years ago when I returned from SVG. I went from the plane right to the hospital. The doctors and nurses never heard about dengue. The next day they came to work and informed me they searched the Internet and found the disease. My African doctor knew about the disease and wondered why he wasnt called when I was admitted.
Many hoteliers in the Caribbean believe air-condition rooms prevent tourists from getting bitten. However they forget many tourists spend more time outdoors than indoors. Only Mustique in the Grenadines had control over mosquitoes, some ten years ago. I found this out when I researched the disease ten years ago. Mustique installed a machine that attracts the female mosquito and kills it. The machine can protect half acres of land and is very effective. Its really up to the people with governments help that will eradicate mosquitoes in the Caribbean.