IN RECENT years, there has been a noticeable trend of young people placing greater emphasis on physical fitness. Gym memberships are on the rise, parks are buzzing with activity, and social media is flooded with fitness challenges, workout routines...

Ahead of World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on Friday called for increased efforts to eliminate these diseases, which affect more than 50 million people in the Americas.

PAHO said leprosy, dengue, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, rabies, scabies, schistosomiasis and trachoma are among the more than 20 diseases that primarily impact vulnerable populations with limited access to safe water, basic sanitation and health-care services.

“Addressing this group of diseases requires a comprehensive and multifaceted approach,” PAHO director Dr Jarbas Barbosa said.

He emphasised the importance of implementing strategies such as surveillance, mass drug administration, expanded vaccination coverage, vector control, and increased awareness and education.

Historically, these diseases have had a limited presence on the global public health agenda, receiving little attention and funding.

However, in recent years, it said NTDs have gained greater visibility due to various strategies, such as PAHO’s Disease Elimination Initiative, which aims to eliminate more than 30 communicable diseases and related conditions by 2030, including 12 from the NTD group.

As of December 2024, PAHO said 54 countries worldwide had eliminated at least one NTD.

In the Americas, 11 countries have achieved at least one elimination target.

World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day is observed on January 30. This year’s theme, “Acting Together. Putting Communities at the Heart of the Fight Against NTDs,” underscores “the importance of amplifying community voices, strengthening their capacities, and ensuring people are at the centre of actions while respecting their ways of life to ensure the sustainability of these efforts.”

Leprosy, part of the neglected tropical diseases group, is a chronic infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, which primarily affects the skin and peripheral nerves.

If untreated, it can lead to progressive and permanent disabilities.

However, leprosy is curable through multidrug therapy (MDT), “an accessible and effective treatment.”

Early diagnosis plays “a crucial role in the fight against the disease and timely treatment can prevent disabilities and deformities, and stop transmission,” it said.

In 2023, PAHO said 182,815 new cases of leprosy were reported globally, 13.6 per cent of which were in the Region of the Americas.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, about 30,000 new cases were reported annually in the Americas.

However, this figure dropped significantly during the pandemic but rose again in 2023 to around 25,000 cases.

PAHO said World Leprosy Day, observed on the last Sunday of January, “aims to raise awareness about the disease and end discrimination, stigma and prejudice against patients.”

SOURCE: CMC

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Blind and visually impaired persons are urging the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) to implement audio alerts for medication collection, highlighting a significant accessibility gap in healthcare services.

Their calls come in the wake of repeated challenges members of that community encounter while accessing certain services at the island’s lone public general hospital.

On Thursday, a caller on the radio call-in programme Down to Brass Tacks complained that while audio alert indicators were put in place to accommodate persons with disabilities in at least two of the island’s polyclinics, more could be done at the hospital.

The caller, who identified himself as blind, said: “What I am calling about is something that I experience every time I go to the pharmacy at the QEH and I hoping that the director of the QEH and the minister is listening to me very carefully. I am blind, let me make that clear first. When I go to Winston Scott Polyclinic or the Edgar Cochrane Polyclinic to get medication, there is a device at the pharmacy that tells you the number and you then would go up to the pharmacy and hand in your prescription and get your medication. But what I have observed is that when I got to the eye clinic at the hospital and I have to go and get medication from the pharmacy, they have that same device but it doesn’t talk. So anybody that goes to the pharmacy at the QEH that is blind or visually impaired they have to depend on somebody to tell them when their number is up on the screen. I would like the director of the hospital or the minister to look into that and make sure that they put one of the ones that talk.”

Failing that, the caller suggested that a teller terminal system be set up in which people could pull numbers and an automated audio caller would announce the number.

Vice-president of the Barbados Council for the Disabled, Ambassador Kerry-Ann Ifill, confirmed that her organisation had received numerous complaints about the situation over the years.

Ifill told Barbados TODAY that there were technologies such as vibrating buzzers that could be used.

“They could use the same system that the restaurants are using, the buzzer system, which would make better sense because they flash and vibrate and use them for people who only have disabilities. That way, when you go and you are blind or deaf, nobody would have to tell you when your number [is] called. That is a simple solution and yes, it is a big issue that we face with the hospital,” she said.

Asked how persons with disabilities get around the issue, she said: “With a lot of frustration and there are some good people out there that will tell you your number called or ask you what number you have and monitor it for you. Some nurses also assist but it doesn’t lend to an independent experience.”

Ifill added that people with disabilities wanted to be independent and feel empowered and issues such as this were a major setback.

When contacted, the QEH promised a response to the concerns highlighted, but no statement was provided up to press time. (SZB)

The post Disabled community calls for ‘inclusive’ QEH services appeared first on Barbados Today.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently rejected a global petition calling on them to end their longstanding sponsorship deal with Big Soda giant, Coca-Cola.  The petition, launched during the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games this past summer, as part of the global campaign “Kick Big Soda Out!”, garnered over 255,000 signatories from 95 countries (including the Caribbean) and the support of 93 partner organisations, including the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), Antigua and Barbuda Diabetes Association, EarthMedic and EarthNurse Foundation for Planetary Health, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados, the Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network and Lake Health and Wellbeing St Kitts and Nevis.

The Power of Big Soda

The Olympic Games captured the attention of people across the globe. The 30.6 million average primetime viewership was 82% higher than the audience of the 2020 Tokyo Games – an incredible feat for the broadcast networks behind the Games. However, Olympic viewers were not just taking in the incredible achievements of athletes – viewers were also bombarded with overt and more surreptitious adverts for the Games’ longest standing partner: Coca-Cola – the largest soda company in the world.

The Olympic Games have been sponsored by this single beverage company since 1928 and their current contract extends until the 2032 Brisbane Games. The term ‘Big Soda’ refers to the global multimillion dollar soft drink industry giants. Sponsoring a large sporting event like the Olympics provides ‘Big Soda’ companies like Coca-Cola with unparalleled opportunities to market their products to enormous audiences, despite their negative impacts on viewers’ health and the environment. Additionally, sponsorship of sporting events allows companies to associate their products with historic moments and leading athletes. This practice, known as “sports washing,” gives unhealthy items like sugary drinks a misleading “health halo”, disguised as healthy while their overconsumption fuels the obesity and noncommunicable disease (NCD) crisis.

Many of these multinational soft drink companies make voluntary pledges not to market their products to children, but their actions tell a different story. They partner with elite sports that children watch, such as the Olympics and also sponsor local sporting activities.  They run sports-related campaigns geared toward young people and use the same “sports washing” practices to reach youth at fitness and health-focused activities. Evidence has shown that young people may be especially susceptible to this type of marketing, which can increase their consumption of sugary drinks and other ultra-processed products.

Caribbean Impact

Today the Caribbean has some of the highest rates of adult obesity in the world and alarmingly, one in three children in the region is living with overweight or obesity and rates are steadily increasing – contributing to NCDs like Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of sport extends beyond the Olympic Games reaching deep into our local communities directly, and indirectly, through local subsidiaries. In resource-strained communities like the small developing states of the Caribbean, these players fill funding gaps in national sporting programs and events. The soda giant has sponsored local football clubs, national youth swimming, and athletics competitions in Barbados. Similarly, in The Bahamas, the local producer of Coca-Cola products, has a long history of sponsoring youth sport programs including swimming and football clubs.  Across the region every year during the school sports terms, budding young elementary and secondary school athletes compete in national stadiums against a stark and contrasting backdrop of colorful banners promoting a range of unhealthy products from sugary sports drinks to popular fast foods. All of these arrangements present clear opportunities to promote unhealthy products to young people who both participate in and watch these events – reaching young, impressionable athletes through their love of sport and building lifelong brand loyalty.

Other popular beverage and fast-food companies have also employed these sports-washing practices, sponsoring school and community-based youth sporting events. In Jamaica, a popular fast food restaurant, reaffirmed its support for the 2024 Jumpball Basketball Programme with a JA$4.5 million donation. A sugary drink company partnered with a local school to refurbish its gymnasium as part of a commitment to the school’s sporting program. What was called, “…an investment in shaping the lives of their students,” is a chance to directly market sugar-filled beverages to children inside school walls.

Support for Ending Big Soda Sponsorship

There is growing acknowledgement of the commercial determinants of health – the actions of the private sector that positively and negatively influence health – and the need for comprehensive regulation of industries such as tobacco, alcohol fossil fuels and ultra-processed foods. This includes marketing regulation, which prevents these actors from deploying various advertising, sponsorship and promotions tactics, including through sport, to expand brand loyalty and increase consumption of their products.

Globally, opposition to Big Soda’s involvement in sport is growing.  The “Kick Big Soda Out of Sport” highlighted sugary drinks’ impact on health and the environment. Through informing a global audience about Big Soda’s marketing tactics, the campaign aimed to end Big Soda’s sponsorship of sport. In addition to the quarter of a million signatories of support and almost 100 organisational supporters, The Lancet, one of the most powerful voices in global health, affirmed its support for the campaign stating, “…it [IOC] should drop its shortsighted and hypocritical partnerships with companies that enable great harm to health and wellbeing.” The HCC and many of our members joined the movement acknowledging that if action was not taken at the global level to manage the influence of conglomerates like Big Soda, it would further frustrate regional control and regulatory efforts.

Calling on the Governments to Regulate

The IOC’s rejection has only strengthened the resolve of the petition signatories, and follow up letters are being sent to the IOC underscoring that the Coca-Cola partnership ‘undermines [the IOCs] credibility and its mission to promote healthier lives through sport’ and reminding the IOC that ‘The Olympics should prioritize health, sustainability and integrity — not corporate interests.’

The HCC will continue to support the campaign globally and locally. The premise of the campaign aligns with regional health advocates’ call on CARICOM Governments for evidence-informed regulations of commercial actors and their unhealthy products, such as: front of package octagonal warning labelling on all pre-packaged foods; national school nutrition policies which restrict the availability and marketing (including sponsorship) of unhealthy products; implementation of framework convention on tobacco control (FCTC) and the WHO SAFER Technical package for alcohol control; and for clear guidelines to manage conflicts of interest and foster transparency in health promotion efforts and policymaking spaces.

The “Kick Big Soda Out” movement was an important catalyst for change. It’s time for innovative, health-promoting companies without conflicts of interest to step in and support healthier communities – displacing Big Soda and other health-harming companies. Tobacco, alcohol, fossil fuels and ultra-processed products like Big Soda have no place in sport.

The post “Sports Washed” Away: The Power of Big Soda, from the Olympics to Caribbean appeared first on Healthy Caribbean Coalition.

On the 29 November 2024, HCC held it’s ninth annual Caribbean Alcohol Reduction Day (CARD 2024) under the theme, Unmasking Influence: Regulating Alcohol Marketing in the Caribbean. The webinar was attended by over one hundred people. This being the ninth year of implementation of CARD, a day first celebrated in 2016 as an initiative led by the HCC and regional partners with the aim of building public awareness about the dangers of alcohol consumption and building public and policymaker support for the implementation of evidence-informed alcohol policies recommended by PAHO/WHO outlined in the WHO Safer Technical Package and the Global Alcohol Action Plan 2022-2030.

Caribbean Alcohol Reduction Day has been held annually for the past nine years, under the themes and titles: The Misuse of Alcohol (2016); Drink less, Reduce Cancer (2017); Youth: Let’s talk about alcohol (2018); Women and Alcohol (2019); Alcohol and COVID-19 (2020); Live Better, Drink Less, alcohol gets in the way (2021 *in support of PAHO’s regional alcohol awareness campaign under the same banner); The WHO Global Alcohol Action Plan 2022-2030 – Priorities for the Caribbean (2022); and Alcohol Research- Evidence for Action (2023).

The goal of CARD 2024 was to: Promote CARICOM-wide implementation of bans or comprehensive restrictions on alcohol advertising, sponsorship, and promotion.

The objectives of CARD 2024 were to:

• Reinforce the dangers of alcohol consumption especially among young people and women and the link between alcohol marketing (advertising, sponsorship and promotion) and consumption.
• Build public and policymaker awareness of the scope and extent of alcohol advertising, sponsorship and promotion to young people and women.
• Highlight regional gaps in alcohol advertising, sponsorship and promotions regulations.
• Build public support for bans or comprehensive restrictions on alcohol advertising, sponsorship, and promotion especially those targeting young people and women.
• Call for multistakeholder action including CARICOM Governments to implement bans or comprehensive restrictions on alcohol advertising, sponsorship, and promotion; and the regional alcohol industry to cease alcohol advertising, sponsorship, and promotion.

Read the HCC CARD 2024 Press Release.

Panelists

Dr. Kenneth Connell
HCC President

Dr. Gloria Giraldo
NCDs and Mental Health Caribbean SubRegional Advisor
PAHO

Maisha Hutton
Executive Director
Healthy Caribbean Coalition

Professor Rohan Maharaj
HCC Alcohol Policy Advisor, Professor of Family Medicine of University of the West Indies
Read/download presentation

Juan Tello
Unit Head, Less Alcohol WHO

Elisabet Ruiz Cairó
Legal Consultant
WHO

Angélica María Claro
Civil Society Coordinator
Movendi International
Read/download presentation

Dr. Asante Le Blanc
Director on the Board of Directors for the Trinidad and Tobago Cancer Society

Dr. Tamara Remy
President – Saint Lucia Cancer Society, Consultant General Surgeon, HCC Board Member

Simone Bishop-Matthews
HCC CARD 2024 Consultant

Karissa Moss
HCC CARD 2024 Consultant

View/download the CARD 2024 flyer.

The HCC and partners have held an annual Caribbean Alcohol Reduction Days (CARD) since 2016 you can find details of the other CARD days here.

The post appeared first on Healthy Caribbean Coalition.

The Vector Control Unit will concentrate its fogging exercise in St Lucy and St Peter for most of this week.

On Monday the team will visit communities in St Lucy, including Trent’s Road, Hannays Road, Swampy Town, and Hope Bridge Road.

The Unit will focus on areas in St Peter on Tuesday when it goes into Speightstown, Queen Street, Bovell Road, Mango Lane, Chapel Street, Gooding Alley, Major Walk, Sand Street, Church Street, Golden Mile with avenues, and environs.

Wednesday will see the team return to St Lucy, where the following areas will be sprayed: Pie Corner, Little Bay, Upper Salmond, Josey Hill, Rock Hall, Mount View, Chance Hall, Cave Hill, and Bishops.

It will be the turn of Graveyard, The Risk, Date Tree Hill, Boscobelle, Collins, Diamond Corner, Moore Hill, Castle, and Gays in St Peter, on Thursday.

The fogging exercise for the week will conclude on Friday in the following St Michael and Christ Church districts: Deighton Road, Gooding Road, Brathwaite Gap, Dayrells Road, Plum Close, Rockley New Road, Ventnor Gardens, and Golf Club Road.
Fogging takes place from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. daily. Householders are reminded to open their windows and doors to allow the spray to enter. Children should not be allowed to play in the fog.

Members of the public are advised that the completion of scheduled fogging activities may be affected by events beyond the Unit’s control. In such circumstances, the Unit will return to communities affected in the soonest possible time.

The post Northern parishes targeted for fogging appeared first on Barbados Today.

Santo Domingo.- Pro Consumidor’s executive director, Eddy Alcántara, announced that as of Wednesday, October 30, all companies involved in the distribution, marketing, and bottling of drinking water, as well as small businesses, will be prohibited from displaying water bottles in direct sunlight. This decision comes after scientific studies demonstrated the health risks posed by such exposure.

Alcántara emphasized that the measure aligns with agreements made with water bottling associations to prevent further exposure of this essential product to harmful conditions. Businesses are urged to store water properly to ensure it remains safe for consumption.

Pro Consumidor had previously warned of “drastic” sanctions against companies that fail to comply with this regulation due to the risks associated with sun exposure.