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Contact:
Julita Peter
Friday, January 21, 2005 - The Leprosy Control Unit of the Ministry of
Health is preparing to host what it believes will be a successful health fair
this year. The annual exhibition will take place on Saturday January 29th at the
Castries City Hall, and forms part of activities in observance of World Leprosy
Day on Sunday, January 30th.
Consultant Dermatologist and Program Manager for the Leprosy Control Unit, Dr.
Merlina Joseph, said the health fair would educate the public on the various
signs of leprosy and how the disease can be detected. She said the health fair
would also provide an opportunity for persons to expand their knowledge on the
various aspects of health, such as diabetes and hypertension.
“We are also going to focus on preventive health care in terms of proper
nutrition and proper exercising. It is really important that the St. Lucian
public is aware of skin diseases, because we do not pay attention to our skin
unless we have something like skin cancer, but there are also other minor
illnesses like Eczema, what we commonly know as Lotta, which is a fungal
disease, acne and other diseases of the skin, which can actually be an indicator
of internal problems. We do want the public to come out and know about these
things, especially Leprosy, because we seem to have forgotten leprosy and we
still have leprosy in St. Lucia in very high numbers”, Dr. Joseph said.
The health fair will run from 10:00am to 2:30pm at the Castries City Hall.
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