The deceased, a 51-year-old Guyana national who resides here and whose name has not yet been released, was impaled on a piece of steel when he fell off the 30-40 feet scaffolding. The other man, a 50-year-old, was transported to the hospital via ambulance with complaints of pain to his back and lower extremities.
Police say investigations are continuing into the incident.
Here, emergency officials leave the scene where the incident took place.

(Photo by Haroon Greenidge)

The post Tragic Day appeared first on Barbados Today.

“Every patient matters, every staff member counts, and every day we should do something that would improve the services or situation,” said Clark, whose appointment took effect on Tuesday, at a QEH Town Hall titled New CEO, New Financial Year, New Mission.

In his first speech to senior management and staff, he highlighted the pivotal role of compassion and empathy in healthcare delivery, stressing the importance of aiding individuals who may be tired or frustrated. “When you see those people [patient or staff], help them,” he continued.

The CEO spelt out a vision of key essentials to healthcare excellence, emphasising safety, care, and efficiency.

“When I think about healthcare services, I think that it has to be safe. Everybody expects it to be safe. Everything should be as safe as it possibly can be, it should be caring. These are human beings who need our help, it has to be caring,” he said.

Clark, who holds a Master’s degree in Organisational Development with about 30 years of healthcare planning and senior management experience, stressed the need for an efficient hospital as he warned against wasting doctors’ and patients’ time.

Emphasising the critical role of patient focus in healthcare delivery, he suggested that services align seamlessly with patients’ needs. He also stressed the importance of effective leadership at all levels of the organisation.

“It has to be well-led not just by myself but by the directors, managers, supervisors,” he said. “We have to make sure that we have the right structures and systems in place to allow everybody to contribute.”

The new QEH boss also spoke on the significance of teamwork, highlighting the collective effort required for organisational success.

According to a QEH press release, Clark’s appointment followed a rigorous selection process including a representative sampling of management and staff input into profiling their expectations of a CEO, and psychometric leadership and emotional intelligence tests of a dozen candidates who were shortlisted. It added that Clark has a track record as a results-driven healthcare leader with a focus on patient-centric strategies and outcomes.

(SM)

The post On the job: New QEH CEO pledges patient-centred, efficient care appeared first on Barbados Today.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Arthur Phillips said the health ministry was monitoring the development, while Chief Veterinary Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture Dr Mark Trotman disclosed that his ministry is setting up its own surveillance system.

A poultry facility in Michigan and an egg producer in Texas both reported outbreaks of bird flu  — also known as the highly pathogenic avian influenza — this week. The latest developments also include infected dairy cows and the first known instance of a human catching bird flu from a mammal. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the human case in Texas. The infected person, who reportedly had exposure to dairy cattle presumed to have the bird flu virus, complained of eye redness and is currently recovering, the CDC said.

Although US health officials say the risk to the public remains low, there is rising concern, emerging partly from the news that the largest producer of fresh eggs in the US reported an outbreak.

Dr Trotman said the flu is of concern to Barbados because the virus is “maintaining itself” not only in the US but globally. Of particular concern to him is the virus’ unprecedented animal-to-human transmission.

“This is an alarming development which we still have to analyse and do some risk analyses and see what the implications are. Not only was it seen in a human, but there was also an outbreak in some dairy cattle in Texas not too long ago,” the chief vet told Barbados TODAY.

“So, the nature of the virus seems to have mutated slightly. We are not yet seeing any evidence of direct transmission between animals or between people, which is really the measure that would cause us to think about taking more actions.

“We are detecting bird flu now in species that have never been detected before. So, we are watching it very closely to see how that develops and also trying to put our own preparedness in place in the event it does get to Barbados,” he added.

While Dr Trotman acknowledges that there is no evidence yet of the virus being passed from human to human, he is not ruling out the possibility.

“It is such a new development in this particular strain of virus, that it is something we are obviously watching very closely for any human-to-human transmission. As far as I can find, and the information that has been sent to me and that we have also looked at, there is no evidence of that happening.

“But we are still watching it very closely and taking our own precautions. [But] you never rule that out. COVID-19 was a big call for us in the medical field . . . . How something can spread so rapidly and so severely from humble beginnings is something that we are now very, very acutely aware of.

“So, it’s certainly not something we will rule out, but something we will consider when we are watching the development of the disease if it further changes or mutates,” he said.

Dr Trotman also gave an assurance to Barbadians that poultry imports from the US would be flu-free.

“We are not concerned about the risk of importation of commercial poultry as a result of it, because we have an agreement with the USA to make sure that all the poultry that is brought in commercially is certified by them as free from bird flu and from premises that don’t have any outbreaks,” he declared. “So, we have been able to maintain the supply chain where that is concerned. However, many countries across the world are still experiencing outbreaks.”

He pointed out that the means by which the disease is being transmitted now is mainly through wild birds.

“So, we are still on the alert, we are developing our own surveillance and we are also monitoring very closely all outbreaks that are going on, not only in the US but also in most of our trading partners,” he added.

Some flu viruses mainly affect people, but others chiefly occur in animals.

Avian viruses spread naturally in wild aquatic birds like ducks and geese, and then to chickens and other domesticated poultry.

The bird flu virus drawing attention today — Type A H5N1 — was first identified in 1959. Like other viruses, it has evolved over time, spawning newer versions of itself. Since 2020, the virus has been spreading among more animal species — including dogs, cats, skunks, bears and even seals and porpoises — in scores of countries.

In the US, this version of the bird flu has been detected in wild birds in every state, as well as commercial poultry operations and backyard flocks.

Nationwide, tens of millions of chickens have died from the virus or been killed to stop outbreaks from spreading.

US officials said it had been found in livestock last week and by Tuesday, it had been discovered in dairy herds in five states — Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico and Texas — according to the US Department of Agriculture.

The virus, which is highly contagious among wild birds and poultry, has now spread to dairy farms. The American Veterinary Medical Association said that not only is this the first time that bird flu has been found in dairy cattle but this is also only the second time a human has contracted the virus in the US.

Symptoms are similar to that of other cases of flu, including cough, body aches and fever. Some people don’t have noticeable symptoms, but others develop severe, life-threatening pneumonia.

The vast majority of infected people have received it directly from birds, but scientists are on guard for any sign of spread among people.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb

The post Virus Vigil appeared first on Barbados Today.

There has also been important discussion about social, economic, and institutional access of families and their need for support in these spheres. While this can certainly help families cope, it does not directly address autism as a condition.

Autism is diagnosed under guidelines from the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is diagnosed based on social, emotional, and cognitive behavioural deficits and impairments. However, researchers across the globe are searching for testable biomarkers for autism. Autism is therefore a medical-psychiatric/psychological, and mental health diagnosis. It is not an educational diagnosis.

Autism is diagnosed by developmental paediatricians, psychologists, psychiatrists, or neurologists. Speech and language therapists can assess and contribute to an autism diagnosis, usually as part of a multidisciplinary team. Autism cannot be diagnosed by an educational psychologist. Autism is not a learning disorder, but it is a condition that can have implications for learning. Additionally, people with autism may have learning disorders like dyslexia, dysgraphia, and others, along with their autism diagnosis.

There is an unquestionable need for a comprehensive education policy for children with autism. There is also a need for an approach to lifelong learning with continuous intervention support across the lifespan of all people with autism, of any age. However, some of the most significant contributors to the experience of autism from birth to old age, are matters related to health and mental health. There is therefore a need for a comprehensive autism health policy in Barbados.

How we generally think about autism

When we speak about autism, the focus is usually on the outputs of behaviours and learning and not the inputs to behaviour and learning. That is, we do not focus on what causes behaviour, we tend to look at the behaviour as the starting point and try to stop problematic behaviours. All human behaviours are rooted in functions of the brain and its development – the central nervous system and sensory experience, neurotransmitters, hormones, metabolic processes, motor control and several other integrated biological factors. Behaviour is also influenced by social and emotional factors, but they too are influenced by the workings of the brain as we engage with the physical and social world around us. Doctors, psychiatrists, and psychologists know this but the conversation in Barbados about autism only focuses on teachers and the education system. It is time for the conversation to include health and medical issues in autism intervention, care, and management.

Notably, whenever things reach an emergency point for a child, adolescent or adult with autism, the response is usually a health or mental health response, not an educational response. When people must be hospitalised for gastrointestinal disease, or psychological/psychiatric crises and emergencies, or children medicated to manage their behaviour in classrooms, the response is within the health and mental health systems. So, what happens to create a gap between the moment of diagnosis within the medical-psychiatric-psychological fields and the situations of emergency requiring hospitalisation? How is it within the health fields at the start and in the worst-case scenarios, but in between there, it is treated as an educational matter?

Therapies and education are the engagement tools to stimulate brain plasticity for change and learning to occur. The focus of every therapy is to use an external tool, method, or approach to stimulate an internal change in the brain. The indicator of change is a new output of expected behaviour. But even before we get to therapeutic interventions, even before we get to new learning, there must be consideration of what the child starts with, from the time of conception and development; the state of their health as the foundation for learning; and the early exposures to factors that affect their health and developmental trajectory.

A missing piece of the autism puzzle that we are never speaking about in Barbados is health. Thus, we are only barely touching the surface of the potential autism support that could be available here. There is so much more that needs to be done to optimise the lives, well-being, and full potential of persons with autism.

Health status of women prior to conception and the relationship to autism

For years, it was thought that autism had a genetic basis. However, the most current research on autism recognises the interaction of a combination of both genetic susceptibilities and environmental factors, or epigenetics, as contributing to the development of autism. Epigenetic factors related to autism consider the link between exposure to chemical and environmental toxins and pollution, medications, viruses, bacteria, etc. and the genetic profiles of some individuals. Susceptible people may have difficulty with detoxification and a decreased capacity to reduce the inflammatory responses that exposure to certain environmental factors may trigger.

Recent research, like Association Between Exposure to Ambient Particulate Matters and Risks of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children: a Systematic Review and Exposure-response Meta-analysis, in the Journal of Environmental Research Letters 2021, and other similar research, have identified exposure to and bioaccumulation of toxins within women’s bodies prior to conception. In multiple studies, toxins which have been found in the placenta and cord blood of pregnant women, the breastmilk of mothers, and within some infant formulas, have been identified as related to autism. This means that exposure to environmental pollutants and toxins like heavy metals, pesticides, and many other pollutants may be occurring from conception within the mother-to-be, throughout pregnancy, very soon after birth and in the early infant and toddler period.

Therefore, if we really want to look at making a difference with autism in Barbados, we need to address pollution and toxic chemical and environmental exposures. We need to examine gardening and farming practices that are pesticide, antibiotic and hormone free, rearing animals for consumption that are organically raised and grass fed. It is also necessary to seek to reduce exposures to air pollution and other sources of pollution, so that pre-pregnancy exposures are reduced and developing infants and children are protected from exposure from conception to birth and beyond. There must also be encouragement of breastfeeding by mothers who are eating an organic, non-toxic diet, and provision of safe organic baby foods and infant formulas for our infants and toddlers, as other research has found toxins in some baby food. These types of considerations are a preventative health matter.

The post A Missing Piece of the Autism Puzzle is health – Part 1 appeared first on Barbados Today.

As people across the globe marked World Autism Awareness Day today, Barbadians were not left out. Blue was the hue of the day as individuals wore the colour designated for autism. This evening, members of the Autism Association of Barbados and representatives of both the House of Assembly and Senate converged at the Parliament Buildings which were lit up in the colour which is also associated with calmness and acceptance. Family members Nadia, Aidan, and Robert Simmons were among those in attendance for the lighting up.

(Photo by Jeffrey Bishop)

The post Blue House appeared first on Barbados Today.

The Unit will visit Field Road, Factory Avenue, Parkinson Field, Rock Avenue, Rock Close, Wildey Road, Wildey Garden, Terrace Road, East Terrace Avenues Nos 1 to 3, Newton Crescent, St Ann’s Road, and neighbouring districts on Tuesday, April 2.

The following day, Wednesday, April 3, Villa Road, Valerie Housing Area, Collymore Rock Main Road, McClean Gap, Brittons Cross Road, Mission Gap, Layne’s Road, Perkins Road, Seaman Road, Millyard Road, Knights Road, and Scotts Gap will be sprayed.

On Thursday, April 4, the team will go to Villa Road, Warner Road, Liverpool Road, Reece Road, London Road, Burkes Road, and surrounding communities.

The fogging exercise for the week will conclude on Friday, April 5, in Reece Road Nos 1 to 3, Flag Staff, Streats Road (both sides), Ifill Road (both sides), and Highgate Gardens.

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 spray.

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 Fogging schedule for April 2 – 5 appeared first on Barbados Today.

He said the implementation of the National Strategic Plan for NCD Control (2023-2030) reflects this urgency by providing a comprehensive framework consisting of eight priority areas, aimed at tackling the rising burden of NCDs.

“More specifically, the strategic plan emphasises the reduction of risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy consumption of alcohol, poor nutrition, and sedentary lifestyles; through educational initiatives and policy interventions targeting communities, schools, and workplaces,” he said as he addressed the National Nutrition Centre’s Nutrition Conference, held under the theme Good Nutrition: A Prescription for NCD Prevention and Control, on Wednesday, at the Radisson Aquatica Resort.

“The plan also highlights the importance of NCD self-management and improving healthcare-provider interactions, with a focus on empowering patients and caregivers. Additionally, childhood obesity prevention efforts are prioritised through educational campaigns and creating supportive environments, particularly within schools. This healthier environment is centred on promoting appropriate levels of physical activity, front-of-package warning labels, and restricting the marketing of unhealthy products to children.”

He added that it was imperative to involve persons living with NCDs in these efforts to ensure “inclusivity and responsiveness to their needs”.

(BGIS)

The post Government aims to cut NCDs in half appeared first on Barbados Today.

As pieces of medical equipment from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s Shaw Centre for Pediatric Excellence (SCPE) were being donated to the Frederick ‘Freddie’ Miller Polyclinic, Glebe, St George on Thursday, SCPE Barbados Director Dr Clyde Cave said there needed to be a refocused approach to monitoring early health challenges in children.

Far too often, parents would only take their children to be accessed during specific times of their early life, particularly surrounding their primary school enrolment, or when preparing to set the 11-plus examination, he told reporters.

“I think we are missing an area of monitoring the development of our children, which can be done by a trained person whenever you see them, but in our immunisation schedule we see them in the first year and then the second year and then we don’t see them again until four years of age. So between two and three, there are things there that can be picked up on a screen,” Dr Cave said.

“For immunisations, we don’t see them again before 11-plus, and there are things that are going on there that straddle health and education, school health systems, and those kinds of areas which are, perhaps to some parents, nontraditional medical issues.”

Dr Cave added that while some physical and health issues in children might manifest early on and have an impact on their learning abilities, parents far too frequently avoid seeking an examination.

“The first place you think of taking your eight-year-old child who may have had a change in school performance, may not often be the polyclinic or the paediatrician, but oftentimes that is where we can start the assessment. It could be something physical like hearing or vision, it could be something that we are now detecting like dyslexia or attention deficit disorder.

“In the younger ones, we are seeing more children on the autism spectrum. We don’t want to wait until 11-Plus when that problem has become ingrained and so difficult that change gets harder. We want a spectrum of monitoring children who are well or have identified problems so that we can make every Barbadian child the best that they can be,” he said.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Arthur Phillips said early signs of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and other health issues more commonly found in adults can often be detected in young children.

He said: “While it is true that most NCDs still present in older persons, there are things that we can detect in children that would allow us to intervene and make a difference. In particular issues around potentially detecting children who may have raised blood pressure. Very uncommon but possible. So if we do detect raised blood pressure in children, we can try to understand the causes and intervene early.

“That is one of the ways in which this donation may assist, and then of course our continued interest in childhood obesity. This equipment allows us to continue and strengthen our effort in terms of monitoring child development.”

Minister of Health Senator Dr Jerome Walcott, praised SCPE – the government’s partnership with Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) – for its donation of medical equipment and resources to primary healthcare institutions.

“There was a time where in primary healthcare in communities we were second to only Cuba in the region. In terms of our reach and the involvement of medical staff and nursing staff in the communities. We’ve recognised that we need to refurbish and probably expand some of these facilities to do greater outreach and provide greater services in the primary care setting,” he said.

“We need equipment, we need extra human resources and trained resources, and of course we need research. This project covers all of those.”

(SB)

The post Health officials seeking to track kid health appeared first on Barbados Today.

The medical official made the announcement to reporters following the donation of medical equipment from the Shaw Centre for Pediatric Excellence – a partnership between the government and Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) – to the Frederick ‘Freddie’ Miller Polyclinic at The Glebe, St George.

While acknowledging that salt intake is a crucial contributor to high blood pressure and other chronic diseases, he said current research on taxing salt would have little discernible effect.

“In terms of the salt tax, this is something that was raised as a potential consideration, and the Ministry of Health was asked to submit documentation in terms of our position and recommendations and we have done so. In short, our view is that there is limited evidence of the potential effectiveness of a salt tax in our current setting and that the approach to dealing with excessive consumption of salt needs to be holistic. Dealing with public awareness, dealing with availability, those are the sort of drivers that we would want to focus on in terms of reducing consumption in Barbados.

“We feel that a salt tax would not have a major role to play in dealing with salt consumption in Barbados at this time, and that’s what we have indicated,” the deputy CMO said.

He said the 20 per cent excise tax on sugary drinks, which has been attributed to a decline in the sales of sodas, was different from any possible salt tax, given the number of products that can easily be found to contain added sugar.

Dr Phillips said: “With sugar-sweetened beverages, you have a defined set of products that are relatively easy to identify and to tax in terms of their tariff codes for importation. Salt is co-consumed in products, it’s a very cheap item, and so it presents itself in a wide variety of areas, and the literature unfortunately around salt tax has not indicated that it is an easy intervention to design and implement and that it is effective as a measure for reducing salt consumption.”

He added that stakeholders were still looking into the possibility of using the revenue collected from the sugar tax, to help offset prices on healthier options.

“There has been some specific work done with the Sweetened Beverage Committee and with colleagues from UWI [University of the West Indies], looking at potential cross-subsidies, potentially using some of the revenue generated by the sugar-sweetened beverage tax to then further assist in making healthier items of food more affordable,” Dr Phillips said. (SB)  

The post No salt tax appeared first on Barbados Today.

Amidst the controversy, the school’s board chairman Dr Donley Carrington appealed for parents, teachers, staff, and education officials to work together harmoniously to provide the best possible learning experience for students.

After a walkthrough at the Cane Garden, St Thomas school with officials including Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw and others, Democratic Labour Party spokeswoman on education Felicia Dujon claimed there were two reports on the latest tests, but only one was widely circulated. She said the circulated document had “a missing page” and demanded the full report be made public.

Many parents had also contacted the media with the same complaint about a missing page.

In response, Dr Archer-Bradshaw showed reporters the 10-page report she had from Ian Weekes of Environmental Comfort and Safety Solutions Limited, the company that conducted the tests. She denied any pages were missing from the report.

Dr Carrington told Barbados TODAY there were indeed two report documents from Weekes. But, he stressed the “missing page” allegation was misleading, clarifying it was a paragraph that was omitted, not an entire page.

“Neither the board nor the ministry would have tampered with or removed any information from the report,” Carrington said. He explained there was a longer and shorter version of the same report, both received as Portable Document Format files (PDFs) by the board which forwarded them as received.

The paragraph in question theorised about possible symptoms from high volatile organic compound (VOC) exposure for chemically sensitive individuals. Carrington said he believes Weekes may have removed it from the second version to avoid confusion since it did not relate to the findings.

VOCs are organic chemicals that can vaporise into the air and are found in many products including pesticides, paint, varnish, wax, and cleaning products. VOCs can also be found in refrigerants and fuel fumes.

Both reports’ key findings were the same – that based on all tests of each building, drainage system, and a nearby cave, “there was no venting of any sewer gases” at the school.

Barbados TODAY obtained a copy of the report. The disputed section reads: “These levels are applicable to normal individuals; they are not applicable to chemically sensitive individuals. Specific production operations may exceed these levels due to the presence of one or more compounds characteristic of a specific operation. In those cases, it is recommended that OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) or NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) limits be used for those individual compounds and that they not be included in the total volatile organic value. Exposure effects – eye and respiratory irritation, headaches, drowsiness, nausea, general malaise, etc.”

However, Carrington said that what was important was that both reports had the same findings, which stated that based on all the tests done on each block and drainage system at Lester Vaughan, including a nearby cave system, “there was no venting of any of the sewer gases”.

The board chair explained that Weekes’ services were only acquired to verify that a previous environmental study was accurate.

Carrington said Weekes was hired to verify the results of a prior environmental study, after a plumbing company’s two tests – the first finding defects in the sewerage system that were then repaired, with a second successful smoke test showing the systems were properly sealed.

He noted this was the third environmental report in a short period, suggesting another may be needed to determine why students and staff have fallen ill since the latest two reports confirmed no sewer gas leaks on the compound.

The school has been closed for four weeks, with online classes. Carrington hopes fourth and fifth formers can return next week for extra lessons over the Easter break to prepare for exams.

During the walkthrough, principal Suzette Holder showed the sealed sewerage systems to officials. Dr Carl Ward, representing the Chief Medical Officer, said he was pleased with what he observed.

Meantime, the meeting that was scheduled to be held virtually on Thursday evening with parents was called off due to challenges associated with the online platform.

The meeting was to go through the findings of the environmental test and talk about the possibility of reopening the school next week.

The Zoom call only allowed 100 participants to log in and PTA president Sheena Headley said that it was only fair that all interested parents had the opportunity to participate in the session and air their concerns.

Weekes, who conducted the latest environmental test, also experienced some technical difficulties.

“Therefore, at the request of the PTA president, the meeting will be deferred to a day next week when all parents can be accommodated,” the Ministry of Education said in a press release. “At that time, Mr Weekes will be back on island and will be able to explain the report and address any concerns.”

It added that parents would be informed of the date and time for the rescheduled in-person meeting.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb

The post ‘Hot Air’ appeared first on Barbados Today.