Public Health teams are still in the neighborhoods in action to prevent the spread of cholera.
However, the Ministry of Health is still awaiting the results of three tests on an equal number of patients with suspected signs of the disease. Teams of health workers and epidemiologists are in the affected areas, carrying educational messages about the need for the population to educate themselves and have access to safe drinking water.

“There are no new details of the situation, but all our teams are in the neighborhoods where cases have been reported,” Carlos Suero, Director of Communications of the Ministry of Health, told Hoy.

The situation

Dr. Gina Estrella, director of Risk Management and Disaster Attention of the Ministry of Health, emphasized that tests from the Doctor Defilló Laboratory have registered only 17 proven cases. Therefore, three more trials are expected.

The specialists

Both the Dominican Society of Infectious Diseases and the Society of Gastroenterology have insisted on the need for the authorities to make more comprehensive interventions in the affected areas. Dr. Clevy Perez has been adamant that Public Health should convince the Government of the need to supply water permanently to the inhabitants of the neighborhoods. The Society of Gastroenterology has said the same. Furthermore, they believe education and hygienic measures should be taken to the utmost.

Doctors

In another order, but in the same field of Health, the doctors met with the National Council of Social Security after the union, which groups the professionals continued with the strikes and disaffiliation to the ARS.

This time the strike and disaffiliation affected the affiliates of the Administradora de Riesgos de Salud Humano. Unfortunately, no agreements were reached at yesterday’s meeting, but the parties were summoned for next week.

Neither the Minister of Health, Dr. Daniel Rivera, nor the National Social Security Council president, Luis Miguel De Camps, participated in the last meeting. This time there has been one of the system’s most complex and extended crises. Doctors are demanding their demands and want changes.

Santo Domingo, DR
A low incidence of viruses that weeks ago created pressures on the health system, among them influenza, Covid-19, and dengue, while the authorities put more emphasis on the control of cholera, produced by bacteria, to prevent its further spread.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Public Health kept under surveillance two hospitalized patients suspected of cholera, but with stable evolution, and assured that the case of a patient coming from Boca Chica with a diarrhea condition is not cholera, but that in any case, for preventive purposes, they proceeded to intervene in the community where he resides.

The details were given to Listín Diario by Dr. Gina Estrella, in charge of Emergencies and Disasters of the Ministry of Public Health, who assured that the country maintains up to now the figure of 17 confirmed cases of cholera and that in Zurza, where an outbreak was registered, control of the cases was achieved and that the dredging of the Isabela river was started to guarantee its fluidity.

He recalled that in addition to Zurza, cases were initially detected in Capotillo and two imported cases in San Carlos. However, prevention interventions are extended to all health areas of Greater Santo Domingo, as well as active surveillance at the national level. He said that out of 90 random cholera tests taken over the weekend in La Zurza and Capotillo, only four were positive, of which two were asymptomatic persons.

Regarding the cases of the influenza virus, Covid-19, and dengue, which maintained high levels of circulation during the last months of last year, the director of Emergencies and Disasters pointed out that they currently maintain a low incidence at the national level.

Since the presence of the Vibrio cholera bacterium was discovered in the country again, the neighborhood above has led to several infections of the condition. It has caused the appearance of others in neighboring sectors such as Villa Agricolas, for which the ministries of Health Public, Public Works, Environment, and the National District Mayor’s Office are stepping up sanitation efforts.

In addition to cleaning the wells, the community is constructing four containers to collect garbage that falls from the houses in the upper part of the community so that it does not contaminate the waters. When speaking with this outlet, Juan Luis Vásquez, a member of the team doing the work, stated that they are also encouraging people not to throw their waste in the area to avoid disease outbreaks. “We’re trying to make them aware because we’re doing this for their benefit,” he explained.

Another government measure to halt the spread of the disease is the dredging of a large portion of the Isabela River, which borders La Zurza and, according to authorities, contains the bacteria that transmits cholera. According to official information, a dividing mesh will be placed around the stream once the sanitation is completed to prevent it from becoming clogged with solid waste again.

This is stated by psychologist María de Los Santos, president of the Association of Health Psychologists (ASOPSALUD), noting that it is common to receive patients with emotional conditions in hospital consultations, manifested mainly in panic attacks, post-traumatic stress, social isolation, sleep disorder, depression, use and abuse of psychoactive substances, deep sadness, and suicide attempts.

She said that although cases of this nature have always attended the psychological services of health centers, currently or in the post-pandemic there has been a greater increase in emotional disorders since during the pandemic many people lost their jobs, and loved ones and they felt afraid of getting sick and not being able to seek financial support. “Now we are receiving more people with grief, grief in the Dominican population, people have little tolerance, they get irritated easily.”

The president of the Association of Health Psychologists said that in hospital consultation, especially in hospitalized patients who are going through a medical breakdown, there are frequent cases of mothers who become ill and are emotionally affected because they cannot afford the treatment and fear die and leave their young children alone. Many people believe that getting sick will affect the family economy or that they will not be able to enter the professional and productive world, which also leads them to depression.

I spent about eight hours in the Accident and Emergency Department at the hospital with a relative recently. Before me, my brother spent about 14 hours with the same relative and then another brother spent about five. Together, waiting with the relative, we spent almost 30 hours before she was seen by a doctor. I have heard of others who spent days waiting to be seen. 

There was a young woman there with a child. The boy she carried was unwell, and he vomited on the floor. It was a large amount. That vomit stayed there in full view and smell of those nearby and passers-by for over an hour before a worker came to clean it and I believe that this only occurred because I spoke to the Patient Advocate about the smell and this forced him to make a second call to the housekeeping department.

This is the hospital that taxpayers pay for and the treatment there is abominable. If the problem is staffing, then every effort must be made to get to the bottom of this crisis. It is totally unacceptable, shameful, insensitive and uncaring for people to go through this nonsense when they have to visit there. Despite whatever administration is in, this foolishness continues. People sat quietly waiting their turn whilst one lady vented her frustration. Some people die before getting treated. 

This is WRONG by any standard. We do not need nice sounding rhetoric about how to fix the problem. We want it fixed NOW. A modern hospital cannot operate at this rate for decades, whilst highly paid bureaucrats get paid for running an inefficient operation mandated to deal with the health of the majority of Black people in this country. Our social systems were set up to serve the people and this must be made to happen. Others can attest to the absolute poor attitude of some civil servants, who, at the end of the day, are inefficient but continue to underperform in their positions indefinitely. This needs to change NOW.

On another note, no pun intended, the banks are drunk and crazy. I went to a bank to do a transaction and wanted to use the drop box. When I realised that there were no envelopes to put the money in, I inquired about one and was told by a worker there that I had to bring my own envelope to expedite the transaction. Was her head good? To pay them their money? And the thing about it, is that there were boxes full of envelopes at various stations sitting idly by. I moved from one station to the next and was told the same garbage before one guy gave me one. It seems like the more we change, the more we remain the same. But we seem to like it so.

 Ian Marshall

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“31 countries have reported outbreaks, more widespread and lethal than normal, and the figure is 50% higher than in previous years,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, warned at a press conference in 2022.

Tedros emphasized that Haiti, Syria, and Malawi are among the most affected countries and that the simultaneous outbreaks have resulted in a vaccine shortage, prompting the international immunization coordination mechanism to reduce the doses administered to each patient. 

“Despite this unprecedented measure, stocks remain very low and production is at its maximum capacity,” Tedros lamented, urging countries that have recently experienced outbreaks to step up prevention of potential new infections.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

As we move into any New Year, one tradition is to make a New Year’s resolution. Some social marketing research shows that a majority of these resolutions focus on improving personal health, such as losing some weight, doing more exercise, and paying more attention to eating and drinking habits. Gym registrations traditionally spike in January, but quickly taper off. Coming after a long season of gorging on food and drinks, a health resolution is a good idea, but for many it’s too little too late. A better idea would perhaps be to set health resolutions at the start of the festive season; after all, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.  

In Barbados, the festive season seems to start around the middle of November, as our advertisers seem to merge Black Friday sales shopping, adopted from high-income countries, into Independence Day into Christmas and then New Year’s Day, to be shortly followed by Errol Barrow Day on January 21st. Through sales and other gimmicks, we are encouraged to ‘shop till you (or at least your money, including end-of-year bonuses) drop’ and generally fete, eat, drink and be merry. For too many people, this translates to about six to eight weeks of unbridled activity (while stocks and funds last). 

The food festivities start with Independence, with persons invited to sample as many conkies as possible to determine whose conkies, made with or without raisins, are the best. After ‘conkie season’, the Christmas season officially or unofficially starts: ham, stuffed turkey, jug-jug, black cake (often alcohol-infused) are washed down with sorrel, juices and a wide variety of alcoholic beverages. Mouth-watering desserts, including chocolates, sweets, biscuits and ice-creams, complete the feasts. The volumes of food and drink consumed are designed to keep our obesity figures as high as they are, in the top 20 of the world, and obese persons fuel our chronic non-communicable disease (CNDC) pandemic.

Therefore, we must reset our efforts at prevention and treatment of these CNDCs. Sure, many people behave like ‘one-day Christians’, who do many wrong things for six days a week, and on the seventh day suddenly remember the path to ‘health righteousness’. We have no shortage of speeches on the effect of the CNDCs on deaths, sickness and even the economy, in between a tsunami of advertisements that promote inappropriate health habits.

In the background, COVID-19 lurks. The pandemic may or may not be over, but the virus is still here. At a recent press conference, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer offered statistics to support a rising rate of documented COVID-19 infections on the island, even while admitting that fewer persons were coming forward for testing. Nonetheless, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) noted that there was a cessation of many of the official (‘mandatory’) COVID-19 protection measures from midnight the same day. This coincided with the day where the media were reporting and showing crowds of persons, mainly without masks, jamming into stores to take advantage of VAT-free
shopping. The media has also been showing crowds of un-masked persons enjoying various events, many of them indoors, apparently dismissive of the threat posed by COVID-19. It must be remembered that some people here remain unvaccinated, or have refused to get the booster shots. Vulnerable individuals, and this group includes the elderly and those harbouring CNDCs, are at increased risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19.

Worldwide, in spite of best efforts, which include mitigation measures, vaccinations, specific medications like antiviral medications and monoclonal antibody treatments [neither of which we could easily afford here], COVID-19 still kills about one in one hundred persons who contract the disease, with a higher rate in vulnerable persons.

The ‘mantra’ of our Ministry of Health (MOH) over the last three decades has been “Your health is your responsibility”. Philosophy: great. Is it working with the CNDC pandemic? There is no statistical evidence to support this (so the CMO has stopped releasing annual statistics). Will it work with the COVID-19 pandemic? The MOH has cut back on releasing the COVID-19 dashboard (daily statistics), which allowed anyone interested to keep track of the pandemic here. Official statistics to follow what is happening here are harder to come by, but a rising COVID-19 rate is likely.

The resumption of Q in the Community, a monthly physical activity event aimed at getting the elderly to become more physically active, is a good thing. It unfortunately had to be stopped at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. What is not so good now is that a high proportion of our elderly have one or more CNDCs, and are thus vulnerable to a serious health outcome. It is perhaps unfortunate that the crowds of elderly persons coming out to this function have generally declined to wear face masks.

Internationally, we see COVID-19 is on the rise again, with the emergence of new variants of the Omicron strain, specifically the XBB.1.5 which is surging in China, far away, and in the USA, much closer to us. But this virus has shown that geographic distance is no barrier to its spread. Vaccination, the three Ws – not Weekes, Worrell and Walcott but Wash your hands, Wear your mask and Watch your (social) distance – offer some protection. While the CMO has relaxed many restrictions, it should still be the case that ‘your health is your responsibility’. Act now.

At one stage in life, we were fearful that a masked person may cause you harm, and many still do, when our crime situation is being looked at. But now, no thanks to COVID-19, we are also fearful that unmasked persons may cause you harm as well.

So our health focus needs to last longer than the first week of a New Year, as many New Year Resolutions do. The CNDCs have caused, and continue to cause, significant suffering and death, and have overwhelmed our health care services. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic. As a disease, COVID-19 creates many health problems, but among other issues it makes the CNDCs worse, and actually accelerates the demise of many CNDC patients. And right now, another ‘virus’ has crippled our main hospital, making life and death even harder for anyone who becomes ill.

We must embrace healthy eating, get adequate amounts of both sleep and exercise, and make sure we keep our weight under control. In conjunction with your personal physician, we must ensure that your blood sugar, blood pressure, and blood cholesterol are kept within your target range. “Thou shalt not smoke”, and if you must drink, practice moderation. Ensure that your COVID-19 vaccinations are up to date, and practise all COVID-19 prevention measures. Our resolution is to be healthy all year round.

Dr. Colin V. Alert, MB BS, DM. is a family physician and associate UWI family medicine lecturer.

The post #BTColumn – We need action, not (empty) resolutions! appeared first on Barbados Today.

e, Livestock, and the Environment of the affected countries. “We want to appeal to the public to calm down. We have been actively warning about this situation since March of this year, particularly last September due to the start of bird migrations from North America to South America,” said Andrés González, FAO Livestock, Animal Health, and Biodiversity Officer.

“We have active coordination with international organizations, and we are managing ways to assist recently affected countries,” he added. He also stated that there is no scientific evidence that HPAI is transmitted to humans through the consumption of birds or properly prepared eggs. González explained that the countries’ prevention, early detection, and response plans are being supported in the regional emergency of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza with the assistance of national representations, through an incident command group led by the FAO’s Animal Health division, and in close coordination with the regional steering committee of the Global Framework for the Progressive Control of Transboundary Diseases of Animals (GF-TADs).

Latin America and the Caribbean produce 20.4% of the world’s poultry meat and 10% of the world’s eggs, making this a vital sector for the livelihoods of millions of small and medium-sized agricultural producers. As a result, it is critical to activate the region’s emergency protocols as soon as possible.

By Michron Robinson

Education on substance abuse at all levels of society is critical. That’s according to Minister of Home Affairs and Information Wilfred Abrahams who was speaking to Barbados TODAY after a special church service on Sunday marking the start of Drug Awareness Month at the Church of the Nazarene at Collymore Rock.

He noted that because people don’t understand the effects of substance abuse, its troubling nature is downplayed. “Unless people are educated on what to look for, they may dismiss it as something else. We need to advise and educate ourselves. We need to spot substance abuse in our families, in our communities and even teachers need to spot it in schools… and from as young an age as possible. A lot of Bajans think it is cool to smoke weed, to sneak a drink, to smoke cigarettes, but our children need to be given the information [so they] understand the dangers of it,” he urged. 

While recalling that the majority of persons impacted by substance abuse are males, the Minister of Home Affairs said the NCSA will be working towards spreading the word.

“This is the month that the NCSA is focusing on getting the message out, across to the people. Nine out of ten people who have substance abuse problems are males. That’s a reality we cannot escape. During this month – look out we will put a lot of information out there,” he promised.

The Minister added that the Christian church has an important role to play in wrestling Barbados’ crime problem to the ground. “One of the greatest social organisations is the church, historically and in Barbadian culture, most of us have come up in the church, we get our grounding in the church, we learn our ethics and our values from our grandparents and the church. I believe the church has a significant role to play in the fight against substance abuse,” he said.

Pastor of the Church of the Nazarene Reverend David Holder promised his church would do more to help those with drug abuse. “Our gospel is about changing lives. The church now has to get more involved in the community. We need to get out and that is one of the things we intend to do at Collymore Rock – help them through the gospel,” Holder said. (MR)

The post Education key to curbing substance abuse – Minister Abrahams appeared first on Barbados Today.

Estrella explained that the ministry maintains house-to-house operations in areas such as La Zurza and Capotillo, where a random survey of 68 samples was conducted, collecting samples from both symptomatic patients and those who did not present themselves at the Hospital. “Of these tests, we have only four positives. Two of them were completely asymptomatic patients, and two were hospitalized patients” (Goico).

According to the doctor, Public Health collaborates with the Corporation of Aqueduct and Sewerage of Santo Domingo (CAASD) and the ministries of Education, Environment, and Public Works to develop disease promotion and prevention efforts. “We’re waiting for permission to build the bridge and move the dredgers and equipment to the area to start dredging a large portion of La Isabela that adjoins the La Zurza sector,” she explained. Similarly, Estrella assured that they are looking for efficient ways to dump solid waste and improve the quality of La Poza’s waters.

“We are watching every area along the river’s banks,” she said again. Concerning the spread of bacteria in areas other than the riverbank, such as Villas Agrcolas and San Carlos, the doctor stated, “the fact that I live in one sector does not mean that I do not move to another.” Eladio Pérez, Vice Minister of Collective Health, recalled that in neighboring Haiti, more than 24,000 cases had already been reported, with over 450 people dying.

“The more the epidemiological curve develops in the neighboring country, the more likely it is that it will occur in ours,” he said.