Symposium to highlight diseases of the lung

THE ANNUAL Dr Ena Thomas Memorial Symposium, which takes place on November 19 and 21 at the The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, will focus on some special aspects of pulmonology - diseases of the lung and respiratory systems. These are areas of grave concern in Jamaica, said neurologist Dr John Hall, programme director of the symposium.

"Diseases of the lungs and respiratory system are of increasing concern in an age of environmental pollution, climate change, HIV/AIDS, abuse of antibiotics, lung cancer, cigarette smoking and mountains of industrial waste," he said.

Each year, as an appropriate tribute to the late Dr Ena Thomas, the memorial foundation brings together consultants in Jamaica and overseas to "bring state-of-the-art clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic knowledge and learning to the medical fraternity," Hall noted.

This year, two distinguished pulmonologists, Professor Eric Flenaugh, chief of the division of pulmonology and critical care at Morehouse Medical School, and Professor Ramon De La Puerta from the University of Tijuana in Mexico, an international authority on sleep apnoea, will be the main presenters.

Thomas worked as a consultant at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) for over 17 years specialising in the management of hypertension, cerebrovascular disease and stroke. She died in 1973 from acute leukaemia, shortly after returning from a World Health Organisation fellowship in Copenhagen.

It is noteworthy that in November 1974, the late Sir Florizel Glasspole, then governor general of Jamaica, unveiled in William Ward at KPH a bronze plaque suitably inscribed to the memory of Thomas.

The symposium is opened to doctors, nurses, medical students and allied health professionals as well as the general public. An annual memorial prize will be awarded to an outstanding nurse.