Santo Domingo, DR
The residents of the La Zurza sector, a locality of the National District where four new cases of cholera were confirmed almost a week ago, have had to modify their habits and take extreme hygiene measures to avoid contracting the disease.

Housewives, the elderly, and young people said they only use water from the water tanks recently installed by the Santo Domingo Aqueduct and Sewerage Corporation (CAASD) for cooking and doing their chores.

“At every certain point, there are four large water tanks that are filled twice a day and with that water we do everything, because we cannot use water from the well or from the river, due to the weeds,” said Mariela Veras, referring to the degree of contamination of the La Isabela River.

Although the Dominicans said they were aware of the threat posed by cholera, the Haitians residing in the area continue to bathe and even wash their clothes in the pool, which shows how unhealthy it is.

Given this situation and the number of Haitians residing in the area, the health authorities have prepared awareness material in Creole and Spanish so that foreigners can receive in their own language the necessary preventive information to avoid the spread of the dangerous disease.

“We have been educating them house by house, we are taking them educational material in Spanish and Creole because there are some foreign citizens here, but the Dominicans have mostly heeded the call for prevention, which is what we are looking for,” said the director of Area IV of Public Health, Jesús Surdí.

On the other hand, during a tour made by journalists of this newspaper, a brigade of workers of the Mayor’s Office of the National District was observed in the area, which has been cleaning all the places that could be a focus of bacteria since yesterday morning.

Mobile hospital

By order of the Minister of Public Health, Daniel Rivera, a mobile hospital was installed last Monday in La Zurza. A team of doctors assists all citizens who present any symptomatology related to cholera.

Fewer patients

Dr. Máximo Canela, in charge of the unit, explained to journalists of Listín Diario that, although the number of patients has gradually decreased, each patient is evaluated, submitted to treatment, or referred to a hospital center, depending on the case.

He added that they are also doing “an educational work by handing out flyers containing essential information on cholera.”

A week ago, the Ministry of Public Health confirmed four new cases of cholera, for a total of six in the country. All correspond to Dominican citizens residing in the La Zurza sector of the National District.

The health authorities urged the population not to be alarmed, to remain alert to reports, and to follow prevention measures such as frequent hand washing, washing food properly, eating well-cooked food, and drinking only potable water.

They also recommend going to the nearest health center for investigation and timely treatment if you have any diarrheal events.

The Ozama cordon

On Thursday, the proposal of the Listin Diario newspaper in its Wednesday editorial to cordon off and prohibit the access of bathers to the Isabela and Ozama rivers due to their high levels of contamination and the recent incidence of cholera bacteria was positively accepted by the Ministry of Health.

According to Dr. Daniel Rivera, Minister of Health, the analyses to understand whether or not it is necessary to limit the passage to both river sources are already underway.

Rivera added that, as Public Health, they are going to wait until they see the cultural studies in the waters of the two rivers to proceed to accompany the acting institutions as much as they have done in the intervention process developed by the Ministry in the capital sector of La Zurza, where the first cases of cholera have appeared in the country.

KEYS

Cases and tests

The Ministry of Public Health reported that eight cases had been confirmed in the Dominican Republic, and six others are awaiting results. It explains that since the cholera cases appeared in Haiti, more than 3,000 tests have been carried out in the country to detect the disease.

Prevention

To combat the disease, the authorities continue to intensify preventive measures through water chlorination, monitoring in schools where toilets and pipes are being repaired, installing new water tanks, creating wells for drinking water supply, and cleaning rivers.

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The worldwide shortage of the vaccine that helps prevent the disease, as well as the low incidence of cases on the Dominican side of the island, make accessing the biological difficult for Dominican health authorities.

Eladio Pérez, Vice Minister of Collective Health, emphasizes the Dominican Republic’s interest in being able to administer the vaccines, at least in vulnerable areas. They have approached the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and manufacturers with this interest. “We asked for support and PAHO informed us that we did not qualify, because the situation in the country does not meet the emergency criteria to access the vaccine. They inform us that there is also a global vaccine shortage, which, if true, would allow them to assist us. “We also spoke with the vaccine manufacturer, and the response was the same,” the official said.

Even though only eight cholera positives have been reported in the country to date since the first case was discovered last October, the vice minister emphasizes how beneficial it would be to be able to apply it to the vulnerable population. He uses the Isabela River in the National District as an example, a tributary where the bacterium that causes cholera has already been detected and on whose margin, specifically in the La Zurza sector, six of the eight registered positives are present. 

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According to Rivera, due to the high levels of contamination in its waters, which are possibly sponsors of the country’s current cases of cholera, located in the La Zurza sector that maintains a spring that flows into the Isabela River, studies are already being conducted pertinent to determine fence their surroundings and definitively evade the insistent bathers.

Similarly, the doctor stated that, while the interpretations agreed with the Ministry of the Environment and the Santo Domingo Aqueduct and Sewerage Corporation (CAASD), Public Health would benefit from greater control over the bacteria’s prevalence. “Other State entities are already required to use this strategy, which will benefit Public Health by controlling the emergence of new cases in the area,” he assured.

This proposal to surround and prohibit access to both river sources stems from an editorial published today in the newspaper Listin Diario, which identifies this and other measures as possible channels of cholera retention.

Two senior reporters made history by being awarded the first Journalism Fellowships for Childhood Obesity and NCD Prevention on December 15.

Marlon Madden of Barbados TODAY and Regina Selman Moore of The Barbados Advocate were selected to receive the Fellowship, which was launched in May 2021 through a partnership between the Barbados Association of Journalists and Media Workers (BARJAM) and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados (HSFB).

Pre-COVID research shows that an alarming 31 per cent of children in Barbados are obese or overweight. It is especially critical that young people, parents and policymakers be informed on how to tackle this health crisis that is inextricably linked to the extremely high prevalence of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). Current statistics indicate that eight out of every ten deaths in Barbados is due to an NCD.

An analysis of media coverage in Barbados between June 2021 and March 2022 revealed that articles by Madden and Selman-Moore highlighted childhood obesity, the increasing challenge of NCDs, and its impact on the social, economic and financial sectors.

General Secretary of BARJAM Emmanuel Joseph congratulated the journalists and applauded the initiative. 

“The Association is delighted and celebrates with Regina and Marlon on being chosen for the fellowship. I thank you both for your good work against all the odds, because journalism can be a thankless job as a lot is demanded of us, with very little returns,” said Joseph.

He also thanked the HSFB for the collaboration and urged the two journalists to capitalise on the fellowship and to continue drawing attention to the issue of childhood obesity, as it is a matter of life and death. He noted that the fellowships are key to bringing this concern into public discourse and raising awareness about the issue. “We look forward to the transformation that reporting on childhood obesity (and NCDs) will bring to the local landscape,” he said.

The journalists will each be awarded Bds$1, 200 to support their six-month fellowship, which began on December 1, 2022. During this period, the journalists are challenged to produce evidence-based in-depth articles and stories that further explore the various aspects related to childhood obesity and NCDs at the national and global level, and continue to sensitise Barbadians to the issues. 

 Offering her congratulations, Chief Executive Officer of HSFB Michelle Daniel stressed that the media continues to be an important partner in advocacy efforts for childhood obesity.

“We have noted some very dedicated journalists who understand the metrics of a situation as alarming as childhood obesity and are able to present this information in easily comprehensible ways. Our public cannot be informed about the factors influencing childhood obesity without the support and input of the media. We are heartened to award professional and dedicated journalists to be on the right side for our children as we continue this battle,” she said. 

The presentation to the winning journalists took place at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados. 

(PR)

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According to the same Global Health report, 58% of the global population says they think “often” about their mental well-being.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 15% of adults of working age have a mental disorder, resulting in global economic losses of more than $1 trillion. As a result, this issue is presented as a priority for the international community’s socioeconomic mobility. With these statistics, it is clear that mental health is a topic that is extremely important today and will become even more so in the future. As a result, in a society where consumers expect brands to be agents of change and contribute to people’s well-being, communication strategies that focus on their attention have begun to gain prominence, and many brands have made it their purpose.

The global Communication, Public Affairs, and Marketing consultancy, LLYC, presents the Report “Mental health as a brand purpose” to provide communication strategies that allow brands to relate to their communities of interest. Considering the context in which the definition of a brand’s purpose is critical, mental health presents a great opportunity for companies to play an active, legitimate role in raising awareness and having a positive impact on people.

Despite the intervention of the Ministry of Public Health and the Dominican Red Cross, who have installed four sanitized water containers at the mouth of the “Zurza Abajo,”  where four active cases of cholera are currently maintained, the people of the place continue to prefer the comfort of drinking the water that comes to their homes, over sanitation. “The water sometimes comes with green, greasy, dirty, or bad-smelling straws, and when that happens, I don’t drink it,” said Maria Victoria, who thanked health officials for intervening yesterday.

Contrary to Maria, various residents of the area stated that the State’s intervention in search of improvement or prevention has been insufficient. “Tell me, what is the point of coming down and putting a water tank down here if the same garbage is still everywhere?” According to Pulman Cena, who has lived in the area for over forty years and has never been sick or suffered damage due to the supposed contamination of the waters.

At the expense of this, Cena left the crystalline pool of La Zurza, from which plastic waste, caps, clothing remnants, and garbage can be seen at the bottom; additionally, he filled gallons and buckets in his house with water that he claimed came from an aqueduct connected to the Santo Domingo Aqueduct and Sewerage Corporation (CAASD) tank, which supplies the neighborhood market.

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