Health

V.I. Dept. of Health on Drive to Reduce Health Inequity Using $3 Million CDC Grant

Increasing opportunities to access quality healthcare and to lessen the gaps that reduce a person’s chances of living a healthy life were the focus areas of the first Health Equity Summit held on St. Croix Tuesday. The V.I. Department of Health brought together various medical, health and insurance partners to discuss the root causes of healthcare disparity and ways to possibly improve the mortality rate in the territory.  According to 2020 Census data shared at the summit, the leading causes of death in the U.S. Virgin Islands were heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and assault or homicide. Dr. Lyna Fredericks, territorial director of chronic diseases at the Dept. of Health said that the rates of high cholesterol are driving cases of heart disease in the Virgin Islands.  High cholesterol which is a key risk factor to heart disease is most prevalent in persons aged 18-24 and 25-34, with females leading, she said. "It shows why heart disease is the number one killer in th...