The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) on Tuesday indicated that its concerns about food vending on New Market Street date back to several years and records show that official complaints to the Georgetown Mayor and City Council stretch from 2015 to 2022, but little has been done resulting increased risks to gravely ill patients who ...

But research presented at the American Society of Hematology meeting in New Orleans suggested that a second-generation drug called zanubrutinib from BeiGene is about to unseat ibrutinib as “the king on the block” for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, said Catherine Diefenbach, medical director of the lymphoma program at the NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center.

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Health authorities are warning Barbadians to be extra cautious during the busy Christmas season amid a double whammy of a lingering COVID-19 pandemic that has resulted in another death in recent days, and a highly infectious flu virus.

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Kenneth George said in a recorded statement on Monday that both viruses were presenting some challenges, as he noted that the true extent of COVID-19 cases may not be known since testing has declined.

He disclosed that just below 20 per cent of COVID-19 tests performed were positive while the RE – the number of people in a population who can be infected by a COVID-19-positive individual at any specific time – was above one.

“And those two metrics together indicate that we are still having COVID spread in our communities. In addition, what we also note is that the number of persons coming to be tested has fallen off and, therefore, the number of persons having COVID in our communities may not be a true reflection of what it really is,” Dr George cautioned, as he urged the most vulnerable groups to “go the extra mile” to protect their health.

“And, therefore, I ask that you be cautious around the Christmas period.”

The CMO noted that while the hospitalisation rate has remained low, and those who were hospitalised were having milder forms of illness, “we, unfortunately, within the last seven days have had a single death”.

“We continue to monitor hospitalisation and deaths as a metric to determine how severe the infections are,” the Government’s chief medical advisor said.

“We are indeed facing a double whammy because we have COVID circulating and we also have flu circulating. The flu virus has been typed – it is H3N2 that has been circulating and that has also increased steeply within the last two months. We continue to monitor both for flu and for COVID…. Fortunately…we have not had any hospitalisation or deaths associated with the flu virus,” Dr George added.

He said the Health Ministry would continue to examine the information and report to the public any changes in that trajectory.

“But it is important to note that the flu in some countries does cause significant sickness and even death. The good thing is that there are similar ways to prevent COVID as you can prevent flu,” Dr George pointed out.

“The viruses circulating are certainly not as deadly or causing severe illness as when we were in the throes of Delta. The virus circulating is very infectious, so the likelihood of transmission is high but the outcomes appear to be a bit better.”

The CMO assured the public that the Ministry had not taken its eye off COVID-19.

“We don’t come to the public as often as before, but we continue to run the EOC [Emergency Operations Centre], [and] have several systems in place in the background to make sure that the national response continues,” he assured.

However, Deputy Chief Environmental Health Officer and former head of the now defunct COVID-19 Monitoring Unit, Ronald Chapman promised Barbadians that the Government would not go back to the tight restrictions that were imposed at the height of the pandemic.

“The Ministry of Health has no intention at this present time to return to the heavy-handed approach that we had during COVID. You can see that with the relaxation of the protocols and also with the dissolution of the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit. So, we are at a place where we believe that persons can act responsibly, that persons can take stock of their own risks, they can look and see how they can protect themselves as opposed to having persons police every movement that they make,” he said.

“That was important during the period of time because we knew very little about the disease and we had a lot of hospitalisations and we were dealing with highly infectious strains at that point in time. Now we have a better handle on it and it is time that we get a return to some sense of normalcy.”

He encouraged Barbadians to protect themselves from both COVID-19 and the flu.

“As international travel ramps around this time of the year, it is extremely important that we pay attention to our preventive measures which are mask-wearing, which is still probably the best if not the best method of preventing the spread of respiratory illness; continue to ensure your hand hygiene is up to scratch, and if you are not able to wash your hands still use your hand sanitisers,” Chapman stressed.

“The whole idea of physical distancing, those things are still important. However, we recognise that there has been a relaxation in the directives, and because of that relaxation, we expect persons to take responsibility for themselves…. If you are not feeling well, it is wise to put on a mask. You may not have COVID, you may be suffering from the flu, or maybe just a common cold, but all respiratory diseases can be fought by the use of masks,” he suggested.

Data released by the Ministry of Health on Monday showed that the country recorded 528 new COVID-19 cases between November 26 and December 9, this year.

Altogether, 104 944 people contracted the disease since it was discovered here on March 17, 2020, and 568 of those died.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb

The post Health authorities urge residents to protect against COVID-19 and flu as cases rise appeared first on Barbados Today.

President Irfaan Ali on Monday night announced fatter pay-packets for 5,000 healthcare workers ranging from GY$100,000 at the lowest rung to GY$450,000,  saying it was an effort to ensure they “enjoy a good salary and a better standard of living” while at the same time delivering quality services to the nation’s sick and injured. “We ...

The Public Works Ministry on Monday issued a final warning to vendors on New Market Street opposite Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) to remove their stalls or they will be demolished and taken away. “A final notice is hereby given to vendors who are occupying spaces along New Market Street, between Thomas and East Streets, to ...

Dr. Anthony Fauci acknowledged Friday that there is a "fatigue" about COVID-19 mandates as respiratory viruses surge across the U.S. 

In an interview with Fox 5 New York, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert said that while he believes future decisions about implementing restrictions should be left up to the discretion of local health authorities, he knows that people "don't like being told what to do." 

"I mean, obviously, you would like people to use good judgment to protect themselves and their family in that community without necessarily having to mandate anything, because, you know, there is a fatigue about being mandated. People don't like to be told what to do," he told "Good Day New York."

"But you really want to very strongly encourage people that when you're having a rather strong uptick in infections, which is followed by an uptick in hospitalizations, you want to make sure you do something to mitigate against that," Fauci noted.

NEW YORK CITY 'STRONGLY' URGES MASKS AMID 'HIGH LEVELS' OF COVID, FLU, RSV

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director also told the station that he was concerned about what he called "not a very vigorous uptake" of the omicron-specific booster.

"We're doing much, much lower from a percentage point that we shouldn't be doing you know, in some respects, that may be understandable, because people want to be done with COVID," he said. "We've all been exhausted over the last three years. But there still is a lot to do to protect yourself and your family and, ultimately, your community."

Health officials in cities nationwide are encouraging residents to embrace mitigation measures – strongly recommending masking in New York and Los Angeles. 

Phoenix authorities are encouraging vaccinations as reports of illnesses in Maricopa County are on the rise, including influenza and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). 

LOS ANGELES COVID CASES SURGE, BUT COUNTY HOLDS OFF ON MASK MANDATE

"At this level of transmission, the CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors in public, which includes during travel and in other public settings. RSV cases are more than two times higher than during the average peak," the Maricopa County Department of Public Health said in a news release.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that the U.S. is seeing elevated levels of the viruses – especially for RSV and flu. 

"Levels of flu-like illness, which includes people going to the doctor with a fever and a cough or sore throat are at either high or very high levels in 47 jurisdictions, and that is up from 36 jurisdictions just last week. CDC estimates that since Oct. 1, there have already been at least 8.7 million illnesses, 78,000 hospitalizations and 4,500 deaths from flu," Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a Monday telebriefing. "Flu hospital admissions reported through HHS’s hospital surveillance system, which were already high for this time of year, have nearly doubled during the last reporting period. Compared to the week prior, hospitalizations for flu continue to be the highest we have seen at this time of year in a decade, demonstrating the significantly earlier flu season we are experiencing."

She encouraged people to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and influenza and to take preventative actions, like wearing a high-quality, well-fitting mask to prevent the spread of illness. 

Santo Domingo, DR
Brigades from the Mayor’s Office of the National District (ADN), in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health and other institutions, carried out a cleaning operation yesterday in which solid waste was fumigated and collected in the La Zurza sector of the capital, where two cases of cholera were recently detected.

“Today we are here with the city council cleaning the entire riverbank, giving attention to the families, bringing them supplies such as masks, gel, so that they can sanitize the whole area since we had two positive cases of cholera, which are already stable,” said Damian Almonte, coordinator of the Program for the Reduction of Traffic Accidents (Premat).

He assured me that the patients affected by cholera had already been treated and discharged. “We are finishing the sanitation of all the parts so that we can have a clear idea of where the cholera cases came from or if they were imported or if they were referrals from this same episode,” added Almonte.

Regarding the drinking water, he assured that it has already been treated by the Santo Domingo Aqueduct and Sewage Corporation (CAASD), and they are waiting for the results to be able to notice any abnormality in the liquid.

She also affirmed that there is no landfill in the community; instead, there is a “transfer” for solid waste, where the neighbors deposit the debris and collect it three times a week. Furthermore, the Vice Minister of Social Assistance, Raiza Bello Arias, declared that support and follow-up had been given to the community since the rains of last November 4, which caused havoc in Greater Santo Domingo, leaving irreparable human and material losses.

He expressed that “when these landslides occur, one is ready for epidemics to come, diseases such as dengue fever, in view of this we have followed up.”

The mother of Edwin Alexander Cedano, a 25-year-old young man who was crushed to death by a wall in this sector on the day of the torrential rains, considers that this action by the authorities is something beneficial for the whole community and explained that after the fateful day of her son’s accident, the authorities have been keeping an eye on the area.

Dr. Richard Amenyah Public policies, programmes and laws are meant to protect everyone equally. However, this does not hold true when there is disconnect between human rights norms and public health interventions. Thus, making vulnerable and marginalized people more at risk of contracting HIV. More than four decades into the HIV pandemic, the world is […]

331 residents will benefit from ...

Add to that the limited cholera control resources and the constant migratory flow to the Dominican Republic, which reported two new cases of the disease yesterday. PAHO defines cholera as an acute diarrheal infection caused by the ingestion of contaminated food or water containing the Vibrio cholera bacterium.

Although it is a treatable disease, the World Health Organization warned that if treatment is not administered promptly, it can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death.