CARPHA conducts mission here ahead of several major international events

The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) is conducting an integrated
mission to Antigua and Barbuda this week to build capacity in surveillance, early
warning and response systems, laboratory capacity, competence in health and food
safety.
The mission comes as preparation for the launch CARPHA’s Regional Tourism and
Health Program (THP), ahead of the 4 th International Conference of Small
Developing Island States (SIDS), the annual Sail Week, the ICC Men’s T20 World
Cup and other major upcoming mass gathering (MG) events.
The CARPHA mission, led by Dr. Lisa Indar, and includes a list of highly qualified
medical specialists and technicians.
Acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kamaria De Castro remarked “The partnership
is timely as it helps to improve capacity as it assists in developing a sustainable
future. We want to protect our local population as well as our visitors and let them
know that we are aware of public health threats and we are preparing, building
capacity, training and procuring resources that will be put in place to effectively
prevent major spread of diseases.”
She extended her gratitude to CARPHA for the continued support and partnership.
Dr. Lisa Indar indicated, “It is important to prevent public health threats to stop
them from becoming emergencies as visitors are coming in from many different
countries for Cricket World Cup, SIDS, Sailing Week and we want to make sure
our visitors as well as our people are safe. We want to put systems in
place/strengthen existing systems to be able to identify risks early and begin
immediate and more timely responses to mitigate the potential spread of diseases.”