U-The Caribbean Health Di­gest, a lo­cal pub­li­ca­tion that has for the past four years high­light­ed a va­ri­ety of health and well­ness is­sues as it re­lates to the re­gion, has at­tract­ed a ma­jor in­ter­na­tion­al ex­hib­it to its sec­ond Health and Well­ness Ex­po­si­tion. UK-based Cen­ZiteK, a com­pa­ny that dis­trib­utes a new gen­er­a­tion of Bio Mon­i­tors, sys­tems that al­low prac­ti­tion­ers to non-in­va­sive­ly scan pa­tients with a com­bi­na­tion of tech­nolo­gies in health screen­ing and in ini­tial and/or fol­low-up med­ical con­sul­ta­tions, will ex­hib­it at the event, which is card­ed for March 19 through 21 at the Hy­att Re­gency in Port-of-Spain. The ex­po will pro­vide in­for­ma­tion on and show­case the prod­ucts and ser­vices of over 50 ex­hibitors, among them some of the big names in the health in­dus­try, The Mar­itime Fi­nan­cial Group, Bar­ba­dos Fer­til­i­ty Cen­tre, West Shore Med­ical, Ab­bot Nu­tri­tion, No­var­tis, and the Min­istry of Food Pro­duc­tion as it con­tin­ues to pro­mote its Eat Healthy, Grown Right Here In T&T pro­gramme.

Ac­cord­ing to found­ing ed­i­tor of the pub­li­ca­tion, Sher­ine Mun­gal, the con­cept be­hind the ex­po is to bring to­geth­er lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al health and well­ness lead­ers, healthy life and lifestyle so­lu­tion providers, prod­uct com­pa­nies and health food re­tail­ers all un­der one roof, for the ben­e­fit of the na­tion­al pop­u­la­tion in an in­ter­ac­tive way. How­ev­er, she said, it was un­for­tu­nate that some­thing as im­por­tant as pro­vid­ing cit­i­zens with the all im­por­tant tool of health and well­ness knowl­edge still lacked the sup­port of some stake­hold­ers. "Cor­po­rate en­ti­ties and gov­ern­ment Min­istries should play a big­ger role and show some sup­port. Grant­ed some of them have spon­sored spaces for NGOs such as the Can­cer So­ci­ety, but more can be done," she opined, adding that there are still some spaces avail­able for in­ter­est­ed ex­hibitors.

Min­is­ter of Health, Dr Fuad Khan, who will de­liv­er the fea­ture ad­dress on the open­ing day of the ex­po, said he was pleased that the cit­i­zens of T&T were be­ing of­fered a fo­rum of this na­ture, which was a step in the right di­rec­tion to a health­i­er lifestyle. He added that the Min­istry was al­ways in sup­port of such ini­tia­tives. "You know the Min­istry is cur­rent­ly work­ing on a pro­gramme for re­duc­ing child­hood obe­si­ty and obe­si­ty on a whole. I'm not too sure, but we may have a booth at the ex­po. I'll have to con­firm with the PS," the Min­is­ter said. The open­ing day will cater to cor­po­rate T&T. The sub­se­quent days will be open to the pub­lic, in­clud­ing schools, at no cost.

• For more in­for­ma­tion con­tact U-The Caribbean Health Di­gest at 868-665-6712 or 4428 or email reg­is­ter@uhealthdi­gest.com