Guyana, officially known as the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a South American country located on the northern coast of South America. It is bordered by Venezuela to the west, Brazil to the south and southwest, Suriname to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north. The country comprises ten administrative regions and covers an area of approximately 214,969 square kilometres, with a population of around 786,617 people, mainly consisting of ethnic groups such as East Indians, Afro-Guyanese, Amerindians, Chinese, and Portuguese. Guyana has a rich cultural heritage, with diverse traditions and vibrant cultural celebrations throughout the year. The country's economy is mainly dependent on its natural resources, including gold, bauxite, diamonds, and timber. Guyana's tourism industry is also growing, with attractions such as the Kaieteur Falls, the world's largest single-drop waterfall, and its beautiful Atlantic coastline. The country is becoming increasingly popular among nature lovers, adventure seekers, and those interested in exploring unique cultures.

It is common knowledge that slavery and indenture were characterized by long hours of physical labor, restriction of movement and other basic human freedoms, and severe punishment for violations of draconian labor laws. Less well known is the fact that nutrition was very deficient and a range of infectious diseases maimed, debilitated and killed on a large scale. In trying to narrow the knowledge gap with respect to Guyana, Ramesh Gampat shows that extremely poor sanitary conditions, awful hygiene and malnutrition hastened widespread infections and created a vicious cycle. The British protected its own soldiers, officials and colonists by establishing a medical enclave that lasted until Emancipation in 1838. Former slaves were then quarantined to neglected and decaying villages and Indians to plantations. Concern with health conditions appeared only during periods of epidemics and even then it was essentially for the protection of Europeans. Colonial medicine opened the way for stereotyping, labeling, racialization of disease, neutralization of potential leaders in the struggle for justice, and crystallization of the view that Europeans were superior to Blacks and Indians. Shorter stature and shorter life expectancy are good indications that slaves and indentured immigrants fared considerably less well than Europeans. Several infectious diseases sickened and fell Blacks and Indians, including malaria and undefined fevers, pneumonia and bronchitis, diarrhea and enteritis, tuberculosis, pneumonia and hookworm. The conquest of malaria in the early 1950s accelerated the epidemiological transition from communicable to chronic noncommunicable diseases, and today NCDs account for some three-quarters of all deaths in Guyana. Malaria has reemerged, fueled by a gold boom that consumes huge amounts of mercury. The potentially adverse public health consequences of this relatively new dynamic, the combined trio, have been neglected.

This is a collection of discussions and presentations collected from the seminar, Guyana at the Crossroads, held on November 1, 1991, was sponsored and organized by the Caribbean Resources Development Foundation (CARDEV) in association with the North- South Center, University of Miami, and Florida International University. The main objective of the seminar was to provide an open, nonpartisan forum for discussion of ideas, policies, and directions of change in political and economic arenas. To this end, CARDEV invited government spokesmen and leaders of the major opposition parties to participate in presentations and panel discussions.