We have developed a coordinated approach towards the provision of healthcare for a group of families with diverse severe chronic medical conditions who frequently present to the ED. Through a comprehensive programme including the development of patient-care plans, care coordination and 24-hour mobile-phone access we were able to enhance families' capacities to manage their children's conditions in the community.

This paper describes a new vegetation classification for the Greater Maya Mountains of Belize, focusing primarily on the Chiquibul Forest Reserve. Extensive use is made of GIS, remote sensing, botanical collections and field visits to provide a macro-and meso-scale overview of the vegetation of this region. A total of 32 vegetation classes have been defined, both geographically and structurally, including 11 new classes. Where possible, classes have been compared with earlier classifications. A dominant scaling technique has been used to enable direct comparison between ground truthing data and a supervised Maximum Likelihood Classifier image-based vegetation classification. The merits of such classifications and the effect of scale are discussed.

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A novel, recombinant myxoma virus-rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) vaccine has been developed for the prevention of myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD). A number of laboratory studies are described illustrating the safety and efficacy of the vaccine following subcutaneous administration in laboratory rabbits from four weeks of age onwards. In these studies, both vaccinated and unvaccinated control rabbits were challenged using pathogenic strains of RHD and myxoma viruses, and 100 per cent of the vaccinated rabbits were protected against both myxomatosis and RHD.

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Exposure of a virulent isolate of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and two highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses, one of H7N1 subtype and the other H5N1 subtype, to a continuous ultraviolet B flux of approximately 90µW/cm 2 , which models solar ultraviolet radiation, resulted in an exponential decline in infectivity with time. The time taken for a reduction in titre of 1 log 10 median tissue culture infectious dose for each virus was: NDV, 69 min; H7N1 HPAI virus, 158 min; and H5N1 HPAI, virus 167 min.

Covering an area of 177,000 hectares, the region known within Belize as the Chiquibul Forest comprises the country's largest forest reserve and includes the Chiquibul Forest Reserve, the Chiquibul National Park and the Caracol Archaeological Reserve. Based on 7047 herbarium and live collections, a checklist of 1355 species of vascular plant is presented for this area, of which 87 species are believed to be new records for the country. Of the 41 species of plant known to be endemic to Belize, four have been recorded within the Chiquibul, and 12 species are listed in The World Conservation Union (IUCN) 2006 Red List of Threatened Species. Although the Chiquibul Forest has been relatively well collected, there are geographical biases in botanical sampling which have focused historically primarily on the limestone forests of the Chiquibul Forest Reserve. A brief review of the collecting history of the Chiquibul is provided, and recommendations are given on where future collecting efforts may best be focused. The Chiquibul Forest is shown to be a significant regional centre of plant diversity and an important component of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

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