(Left)Edwin Carrington

(Right)Owen Arthur

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC:

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Governments will meet here next week to devise a regional plan to combat the increase of chronic non-communicable diseases which have been identified as being major killers throughout the region.

CARICOM Chairman, Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur, the chairman of the Heads of Government Committee on Health; St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, Dr. Denzil Douglas; CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington; and, host, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, are expected to address the one-day summit.

Health officials from across the region are expected to help the leaders develop a unified plan to stop the high increase in lifestyle diseases which health officials said account for more than half the incidence of death and disease in the CARICOM region.

The meeting is organised by the CARICOM Secretariat and the Pan American Health Organisation.