GREAT BAY – The Collective Prevention Services (CPS), a department of the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour, is calling on the community and visitors to practice proper hand hygiene and cough etiquette in order to prevent the spread of viruses and infectious diseases especially during the post-Hurricane Irma/Maria period.

Keeping hands clean through proper hand hygiene and cough etiquette which are two of the most important steps one can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others.  Washing your hands correctly should take at least 40 to 60 seconds. 

Many infectious diseases and conditions are spread by not washing hands properly with soap and clean, running water.  If clean, running water is not accessible, as is common in many parts of the world, use soap and available water.  You can also use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 per cent alcohol to clean hands.

Your hands should be washed before, during, and after preparing food; before eating food; after using the toilet; after blowing your nose, coughing, and/or sneezing.

As some viruses are airborne, the flu is one clear example.  This can spread from person to person through coughing, or sneezing particles into the air.

Flu viruses also may spread when people touch something with the flu virus on it and then tough their mouth, eyes, or nose.  Many other viruses are also transmitted in this manner.

People infected with highly infectious diseases should avoid close contact with healthy persons and consistently maintain proper hand hygiene and cough etiquette. Considering persons may be asymptomatic with infectious disease, it is recommended to make hand hygiene and cough etiquette a behavioral habit to prevent transmission.

Persons with flu may be able to infect others beginning from day one before symptoms develop and up to five to seven days after becoming sick.  That means you may be able to spread the flu to someone else before you know you are sick, so when you are asymptomatic.

Preventive actions entails: try to avoid close contact with sick people; cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze (cough etiquette); throw the tissue in the trash after you use it; clean and disinfect surfaces and objects that may be contaminated with germs/bacteria/viruses.

Hand hygiene and cough etiquette are simple and effective actions to reduce the spread of infectious diseases and multi-resistant germs.

Collectively let us protect the community by making hand hygiene and cough etiquettes a common habit.

SINT MAARTEN/ST. LUCIA - From October 5 to October 9, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LBTQI) activists from across the region gathered on Saint Lucia for the 5th annual Caribbean Women and Sexual Diversity Conference (CWSDC). The groundbreaking pre-eminent networking event for LBTQI activists was con- vened under the theme ‘Self-Development for Community Empowerment’.

“The first ever Caribbean Women and Sexual Diversity Conference was held on Curacao in 2013. Since then the event has traveled the Caribbean from Suriname to Trinidad to St. Croix and now, because of the steadfast involve- ment of United and Strong, to Saint Lucia,” organiser Kenita Placide says.

Maria Fontenelle, co-coordinator of the event since its inception, notes “The CWSDC is, in more than one aspect, the premier event for LBTQI activists to grow their skills and network. It has grown in recognition and scope around the region, particularly because of the work in which activists engage post-conference. It is now vested in the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (ECADE), which as a regional organisation is better poised to maintain it.”

Conference organisers say over the years the conference has focused on empowering activists to better serve their communities and region. This empowerment is reflected not only in the work that activists return home to do, but also their growing involvement in the conference as presenters and organisers.

“Human rights and the extension of human rights to LBT women and other vulnerable groups across the Caribbean remains a strong focus of the conference. As organisers who are activists ourselves, we understand that empower- ment must take a holistic approach; thus catering to both organisational development, but also personal develop- ment,” organiser Lysanne Charles of ECADE and St. Maarten/St. Martin Alliance For Equality (SAFE) says.

Some 50 plus activists and presenters from 20 countries are expected at the regional conference and come from islands and countries spanning from the Bahamas in the north to Trinidad and Tobago in the south and Belize, Guyana and Suriname on the mainland.

“For CWSDC, diversity is always a key component; this includes nationality, age, physical ability etc. It is important that voices from the entire Caribbean are heard and we do our best to embolden and energise as many activists and organisations in as many countries as possible, because it is great if individually we are strong, but we know that to- gether we are always stronger,” says organiser Jassica St. Rose of United and Strong.

With the aim of creating change through individual development, #CWSDC5 celebrates the significant contribution of Caribbean LBTI people to their diverse communities. The 2017 conference explores how women and LBTI people live and love at the intersection of the personal and political, their commitment to maintaining our collective bonds of family, culture and identity while creating spaces for self-actualisation and expression beyond hetero- and gender- normative structures.

The conference focussed on creating change through individual development and community mobilisation. The CWSDC engages active women human rights defenders’ working in a Caribbean context.