By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts-Nevis (Friday 10th July 2020) — New Minister of Health Akilah Byron-Nisbett and resident Taiwanese Ambassador Tom Lee signed documents on Tuesday 7th July 2020 for a Capacity Building Project for the Prevention and Control of Chronic Metabolic Disease. The signing ceremony was held at the Ministry of Health, marking the start of a new four-year project.
Taiwan ICDF Manager Feng-Da Tsai said the project “aims at tackling health issues that are seriously affecting the people of St. Kitts and Nevis,” including diabetes, hypertension and chronic kidney disease.
Minister Byron-Nisbett noted: “We have been hearing time and time again that 83% of our mortality rate is due to chronic diseases, and that is something that we need to get under control in St. Kitts and Nevis. It is a burden on our health system. This project is going to get at the root of those problems — how can we build capacity, how can we build persons’ awareness of control of these different diseases. It’s a way of controlling our obesity rates, our hypertension rates and our cardiovascular disease rates.”