As a result, the National Police launched an extensive investigation into the poisoning suffered by the educators, prompting the educational district 13-02 to suspend classes until next Monday to disinfect the facility and environment, according to the center’s director. Isabel Veras is an educator.

The Ministry of Public Health was able to determine that the cause of the poisoning was herbicide, which occurred after the teachers inhaled a highly toxic substance sprayed on the campus. “We were able to contact a person who lives in front of the school, and he showed us the container in which the herbicide was supplied, which is a burner for cleaning a patio,” a source close to the investigation said.

A woman who lives near the school would have sprayed this liquid to kill the herbs in her yard, but according to the epidemiologist in charge of the Montecristi health province, she sprayed more than the recommended amount, and with the arrival of the wind, the substance entered the school and caused the poisoning. So far, 15 people, including teachers and children, have been taken to the hospital with poisoning symptoms.

The National Police are expected to look into the situation further so that the person responsible can be brought to justice if necessary.

The rise in cases is primarily due to two factors, lamented this community health specialist on World AIDS Day this Thursday: The lack of fuel paralyzed Haiti, preventing patients from attending medical appointments, and insecurity prevented people living in the so-called “red zones” from visiting health centers to receive care.

According to the most recent Ministry of Public Health and Population data, there are approximately 150,000 people in Haiti living with HIV/AIDS, 145,000 of who are adults and 5,700 of whom are children. 85% of those infected with the virus are aware of their situation, and 90% are receiving treatment. In 2021, 4,300 people became infected with HIV and 1,500 died from AIDS-related illnesses, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to 217,000 since the outbreak began.

Women account for 59% of those living with HIV, making them the most vulnerable to the disease due to factors such as higher poverty, more visits to health centers than men, greater vulnerability, and a lack of economic and financial autonomy. According to health officials, approximately 133,000 people have active access to antiretrovirals, to eradicate the disease in Haiti by 2030.

They also recommend following the recommended guidelines for hand washing, hygiene, distance, and vaccination schedule completion.

The Ministry of Public Health has never withdrawn its recommendation for the use of masks, according to Eladio Pérez, Deputy Minister of Collective Health, and Ronald Skewes, Director of Epidemiology, but it is not mandatory, but rather a voluntary and personal decision on self-care.

Pérez recalled that the mask and vaccination are the most effective Covid-19 prevention measures. The epidemiology specialist stressed the importance of wearing masks when visiting the elderly to avoid infecting them. He believes that the virus’s behavior indicates that it will continue to circulate in the population for a long time, with peaks at certain times of the year due to an accumulation of susceptible people, as occurs with influenza.

View the full post Celebrating US–Eastern Caribbean Partnership to tackle HIV/AIDS on NOW Grenada.

Nine months after a promise that they would once more get a Government stipend to ease the financial burden of full time study, student nurses are yet to receive the money.

And the Barbados Nurses’ Association (BNA), management of the Barbados Community College (BCC) and student nurses themselves are hoping that the current administration will make good on its promise.

Last February, Minister of Health and Wellness Ian Gooding-Edghill announced that Government would re-introduce the stipend some eight years after it was stopped and at a cost to taxpayers of $2 million annually.

On Monday following a scholarship award ceremony at the college, members of the nursing community renewed the call for the financial help.

“Since 2017, we have been advocating as the Barbados Nurses’ Association for the stipend to recommence to nursing students so that it could assist them with their studies. Leaving school and coming to study is hard; they have to travel to different health institutions as part of their studies.

“Also, the books and the materials that you have to acquire when you want to be a nurse are not cheap. We were told that it would be reinstated so we are waiting for the stipend to be reinstated to the nursing students of all years,”said president of the BNA Valerie Francis-Miller.

Deputy principal of BCC Dr Cheryl Weekes said the campus had already submitted the necessary information to start the process.

She too conceded that it was difficult being a student nurse since the financial requirements of the study could put strain on them.

“What I can say from the college’s standpoint is that the ministry has indeed been in touch with us and we have provided the necessary information in terms of the names of the students and the information they require in order to process the stipend. We are thankful that this is going to be reinstated because we know that it will go a long way to help the students in their profession reaching that level,” she said.

“Being a student and studying nursing is very difficult. It is not an 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. kind of study programme in the sense that the students have to do clinicals and those clinicals can run till 9 p.m. because they try to work to shifts.

“It is difficult for a student to be here full time going into the clinical area and then working another job unable to sustain themselves.”

In February, Gooding-Edghill said in a press statement that first-year nursing students would be paid a stipend of $458.89 per month; second-years $578.53; third-years $698.16 and fourth-years $798.16.

To maintain the stipend, the nursing students would be required to maintain passing grades for all courses according to the criteria set by the BCC. They would also be placed on a two-year Government performance bond after completion of their four-year nursing degree.

The minister said he hoped the stipend would take pressure off the students and their families and lead to an increase in the number of nurses.

Weekes said that the stipend could encourage more people to study nursing especially in light of the on-going nursing shortage.

“It would be an incentive also, for more persons to join the profession to join the training, at least because they know that the challenges of not having the finances would be alleviated to a certain extent . . .  So this is coming at an opportune time when we know that we have a shortage of nurses. Having an incentive will encourage more persons, younger persons, to pursue nursing as a career.”

Francis-Miller said nurses also needed more incentives in the form of educational and career development opportunities.

“Migration is something that has been happening in Barbados for years. It has not just started. Nurses are continuing to migrate and we have, as a nurses’ association, been asking and advocating for incentives to help keep our nurses here. We would like some more incentives.”

Second year student nurse Aldaro Blackman agreed that the programme was financially difficult especially when travel costs and book and equipment expenses are factored in.

He said: “Nursing as a major is very expensive.”

There are close to 400 student nurses training at BCC.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb

The post Student nurses await ease appeared first on Barbados Today.

The demand for evidence was so great that at 11:00 a.m., the personnel working there were already considering closing the door.

According to the Ministry of Public Health’s most recent bulletin, 984, COVID-19 infections continue to rise, with 216 new patients detected, 1,948 active cases, and a positivity rate of 16.04%. Carlos Féliz, an epidemiologist and public health doctor, told Diario Libre that the cases being presented were not of “greater importance” and that what was happening was an “increase in cases of influenza”.

“We are facing an acute process of Covid rise in the Dominican Republic,” Féliz said. The doctor compared the current rise in cases to bulletin figures from 45 days ago, when the positivity rate was 2.38%, 24 new cases were reported, and 249 assets were counted. “At the time of yesterday’s bulletin, 983, the situation had already changed with 12% positivity and over 1,400 active cases,” he noted.

“The health fair, part of the Ministry of Health’s Christmas Caravan, was held under the theme, Wellness Involving Sensible Habits”

View the full post Christmas Caravan health fair in Carriacou on NOW Grenada.

To provide a more precise description of the extent of advances in this field of medicine, consider neuronavigation, a piece of equipment that uses GPS technology to trace inside the brain to identify areas close to the area where the surgery will be performed while avoiding collateral damage.

Gamma Knife radiosurgery is another non-invasive radiation-based procedure that does not damage the skin or the brain that it passes through. There is 3 Tesla magnetic resonance equipment in the diagnostic section, which allows real-time analysis of brain behavior and study of the main nerve connection pathways. These encouraging details are provided by neurosurgeon José Orlando Bidó Franco, who admirably describes how technology has allowed neurosurgery to advance.

“I would say that 98% of the procedures done in neurosurgery in the world are done in our country, even though some emerging technologies have not yet arrived.” Dr. Bidó Franco discusses the main tools available to neurosurgeons in the country that make surgeries and other procedures more effective by reducing morbidity and improving patients’ quality of life. In this regard, he cited stereotaxic, a technique that allows access to deep brain structures with submillimeter precision while causing minimal damage to the surrounding tissue.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in collaboration with the Cancer Support Services is intensifying its cancer treatment services to embrace a more patient-centered model.

On Friday during the signing of another Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two entities at the Martindale’s Road, St Michael facility, executive chairman of the QEH Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland said it was important that the hospital adjusted its approach to palliative care because of the emotional trauma and fear cancer could evoke.

She added that having a more patient-focused approach helped to create an environment where cancer patients would see that there was life beyond their diagnosis.

“Cancer evokes a tremendous amount of fear and emotional response. Some people don’t even want to call the word but what research shows and the Cancer Support Services has been able to demonstrate is that cancer diagnosis does not have to mean the end of the road. There are many people in Barbados who are living with cancer. who are coping… and meeting with others who are also going through these experiences,” she said.

“Understanding what it means to face this diagnosis has really enriched the whole arena of addressing cancer. There have been many people who have been able to live with a cancer diagnosis. What we are here doing at the hospital, we are working on the two spectrums – ensuring that we could provide treatment care and support for those who have a diagnosis . . . making sure they can live with the diagnosis and thrive.

“We are also, on the other end of things, recognising palliative care is also an important part, how we die and how we support persons as they transition is as important as how we bring them into this world.

“As an institution, we have a duty to make sure that we are providing the best quality services across the spectrum from birth through to the end of life and this is what our partnership with this organisation allows us to do.”

Director of Nursing Services Henderson Pinder said the QEH had trained about 80 medical practitioners in its palliative care enrichment programme. He made a case for the course to be conducted two or three times per year instead of once.

“Our palliative care enrichment programme has been one of the most successful ventures we have had with the Cancer Support Services. This programme enables healthcare workers – doctors, nurses and other support persons – to gain a new perspective of the care that they give.

“It gives them an opportunity to look at the care from the caregiver’s side and also from the patient’s side. It helps them to be able to see some of the sensitivities that they themselves have about cancer, about dying, about going through the process of end of life,” he said. “Medical persons who have been through this course, have reported that they have begun to be more sensitive to the needs of the patient and the families and putting them at the front of the care process.”

Bynoe-Sutherland added that the QEH has increased its provision of medical drugs and amalgamated the hematology oncology and nuclear medicine departments to allow for better synergy to attend to patients with cancer.

Executive director of Cancer Support Services Janette Lynton expressed pride at the work of both entities and said she wanted to strengthen her organisation’s relationship with the children on C7 and C8.

According to her, the doctors on those wards wanted more representatives from the Cancer Support Services to give parents with children who have been diagnosed with cancer more support. (SZB)

The post Greater support for cancer patients, families appeared first on Barbados Today.

For this bulletin, DIGEPI reported collecting 2,124 samples, of which 1,261 were taken for the first time and another 863 were taken in follow-up. As a result, daily positivity increased to 16.65 %, while positivity continued to rise in the last four weeks, marking 3.09 % this Saturday.

No new deaths were reported due to COVID, so the number of fatalities remains at 4,384 deceased.

Increased hospital occupancy was also reported, with the admission of 22 patients: 17 in standard wards and five in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).