Media Release: CARPHA, HCC and PAHO call on the Caribbean Community to “Reimagine Healthy Spaces” for Caribbean Wellness Day.

The Caribbean Community is celebrating Caribbean Wellness Day (CWD) 2022 under the theme “Our Neighbourhood, Our Health”. In commemoration of the day, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), are calling on the region to “Reimagine Healthy Spaces” around three main themes – Active Societies, a Smoke Free Caribbean and Healthy Schools.

In a statement commemorating the occasion, Dr. Joy St John, Executive Director, CARPHA noted that, “We take this opportunity, at this stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, to create a renewed vision and re-commit to the practices and policies that we know support the health and wellbeing of our Caribbean people.”

People from across the region shared their vision of a Reimagined Healthy Space with us, see their video messages below.



Built spaces and urban planning laws can significantly impact the level of movement in society and is a crucial element in ensuring a healthier Caribbean.

“The commitment of governments towards the implementation of intersectoral public policies and programs so that all neighbourhoods have basic services, safe public transportation, areas where we can socialise, safe streets, places to walk and green spaces, is so important.” PAHO Director, Dr. Carissa F. Etienne said. “I want to recognize the efforts of many municipalities in the region that are working on making their municipalities healthy, responding to the needs of people, and facilitating strategies that improve the conditions of places where they are born, work, study and have fun,” she added.

Another issue to be addressed during the “Reimagine Healthy Spaces” campaign is the negative impact that cigarettes have on both public health and the environment.

Dr. St John noted that, “Millions of trees are cut down annually to produce the number of cigarettes that the industry demands to maintain profits, while cigarette butts and packaging can contribute to environmental pollution.” She asserted that, “This reimagining of a smoke-free Caribbean, that limits the negative impact of the tobacco industry on our health and our environment is necessary, not just for our own health but for the health of the next generation.”

Here are some of the visuals from Caribbean Wellness Day 2022

Sir Trevor Hassell, President, Healthy Caribbean Coalition noted that “Healthy Schools are a cornerstone of our neighbourhoods and a building block of a productive society.  A Healthy school is smoke-free, promotes inclusive physical activity and is protected by healthy school policies.” He elaborated, “These policies would limit the sale and marketing of foods full of sugar, fats and salt both in and around schools, while increasing the availability of healthy foods and drinking water.”  In keeping with this, the recently launched digital campaign, ‘#ActOnFacts – The Food in Schools Matters’, encourages public and policymaker support for the introduction of policies that puts the health of our children at the centre.

Caribbean Wellness Day

Caribbean Wellness Day is celebrated each year on the second Saturday in September to address the threat posed by non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The day was originally conceived by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and is an integral part of the Port of Spain Declaration where the region united to fight the epidemic of NCDs. The event aims to increase awareness and promote activities to address non-communicable diseases including mental health issues.

The overall theme for Caribbean Wellness Day for the five year-period, 2020-2024 has been, “Power Through Collective Action”. It is this collective power that can be harnessed to affect the much-needed changes that can transform our spaces into enabling environments for a healthier Caribbean people. Collectively, the region has the power to bring the vision of a healthier Caribbean to life – one person, one neighbourhood, one nation at a time.

CARPHA, HCC and PAHO invite the public to join the celebration by visiting our social media pages to share your vision of Healthy Spaces. The campaign will feature key facts around the need for change, enable conversation in our communities and encourage our leaders to continue to build on the commitments made in the historic Port of Spain declaration.

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CAMPAIGN AT A GLANCE

On September 7th 2022, the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) in partnership with regional and national partners launched a digital campaign titled #ActOnFacts: The Food in Our Schools Matters, to encourage public and policymaker support for policies that limit the sale and marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks in and around schools, while increasing the availability of nutritious foods, healthier snacks and drinking water.

The regional campaign features the slogan Policy can make a difference, to highlight the powerful role policy plays in shaping school food environments.

#ActOnFacts will run from September 7th to October 16th, 2022, across social and digital media platforms in CARICOM Member States, and is part of wider regional multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder advocacy and communication efforts to promote healthy food environments for children.

Read/download the press release here.

Jump to the campaign resources.

OUR PARTNERS

WHY THIS CAMPAIGN?

The health of our region is the wealth of our region. We need to invest in prevention policies which target our most precious resource – our children
Sir Trevor Hassell, President, Healthy Caribbean Coalition

With one in three Caribbean children living with overweight and obesity, the region is on a dangerous trajectory towards a future with an even greater non-communicable disease (NCD) burden. NCDs such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer remain the leading causes of premature death in the Caribbean, and children living with overweight and obesity are more likely to develop NCDs at a younger age. Unhealthy diets dominated by ultra-processed foods (UPFs) high in sugar, fats and salt are the primary cause of childhood obesity and its related NCDs.

Early childhood is a critical time for obesity prevention, as eating habits established when young can last a lifetime. Children spend much of their time in school, yet across the Caribbean region, food and beverage offerings in schools largely consist of unhealthy, ultra-processed foods such as sweet drinks, cookies and other ‘junk foods’.

Our children deserve better. School food environments should promote good health and nutrition, and support students in making healthy food choices.

WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO ACHIEVE?

The Food In Our Schools Matters calls on governments to #ActOnFacts and implement strong school nutrition policies that allow and encourage children and the school community to make healthier food choices.

Addressing unhealthy food environments – and by extension childhood obesity – requires bold legislative actions, to not only increase access to nutritious foods, healthier snacks and drinking water, but limit the sale and marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks in schools.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Governments and Policymakers: Invest in evidence based prevention policies. Allocate adequate budgets to support, implement, monitor and enforce school nutrition policies that include regulating the sale and marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks in schools, while increasing access to nutritious foods, healthier snacks and drinking water. These policies have been endorsed by CARICOM Heads of Government and recommended by WHO/PAHO, CARPHA, UNICEF, HCC, Ministries of Health and other key stakeholders.

HCC has launched three new publications focused on Regulating the Availability and Marketing of Unhealthy Beverages and Food Products in and around Schools in the Caribbean, you can access the summary here or all three publications here.

Parents and caregivers: Share the campaign materials with your networks. Recognise that policy plays a powerful role in creating environments that make the healthier choice, the easy choice. Talk to your child’s school administrators and your local policymakers in Ministries of Education and Health, about the need for strong, nutrition policies that allow and encourage children and the school community to make healthier food choices. Our children deserve better from schools.

CAMPAIGN RESOURCES

The campaign uses largely monochrome imagery: playing on the concept that the link between our children’s health and diet is simply ‘black and white’.

We encourage you to share the campaign materials in your networks, please contact us to gain access to the hi-res, different sized images for sharing.

Social Media Cards

Video

Webinar

On Wednesday October 5th, 2022 the Healthy Caribbean Coalition and it’s partners hosted a webinar entitled #ActOnFacts – The Food In Our Schools Matter.
In this webinar distinguished panellists and speakers discuss lessons learned around the implementation of healthy school policies across the Caribbean, and share a new resource to assist CARICOM countries in harmonising healthy school policy regulation.

Other Resources

Civil Society action Plan 2017-2021: Preventing Childhood Obesity in the Caribbean
Read/Download

Civil Society Policy Brief: Priority Nutrition Policies for Healthy Children in the Caribbean
Read/Download

Healthy Caribbean Coalition’s Childhood Obesity Prevention (COP) Portal
Read more

Report – Regulating the Availability and Marketing of Unhealthy Beverages and Food Products in and around Schools in the Caribbean Read/download

Model Policy and Legislative Guidance for Regulating the Availability and Marketing of Unhealthy Beverages and Food Products in and around Schools in the Caribbean Read/download

Summary – Policy and Legislative Guidance for Regulating the Availability and Marketing of Unhealthy Beverages and Food Products in and around Schools in the Caribbean Read/download

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THE MINISTRY of Health and Wellness (MOHW), in partnership with the Jamaica Cancer Society (JCS), is offering free prostate cancer screening, buttressed by an awareness campaign, in observance of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. Through the...

Guyana is on the lookout for suspected monkeypox-infected persons coming from other countries especially Brazil where there is a high number of cases, top Health Ministry officials said Saturday. So far, Guyana has recorded two confirmed cases of the viral disease, while there are 4,876 cases in neighbouring Brazil. Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry ...

Stakeholders are taking steps to remove unhealthy food options from the school canteens.

Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw said with the new School Nutrition Policy approved by Cabinet, they are going all out to ensure that local but healthy foods will be used to feed the nation’s youth.

“I recommend that we rely on foods that are grown locally and regionally in the preparation of lunches and snacks for our school-aged children. We need to think about how we can prepare local foods such as breadfruit, potatoes, eddoes, yams and green bananas so that they become the foods of choice for our young people,” the Chief Education officer said.

She was speaking at a virtual Vendors Training Session put on by the Childhood Obesity Prevention Programme of the Heart & Stroke Foundation, on Saturday.

“It is true that our children are generally not accustomed to these foods so we have to think about strategies and dishes that are prepared with these ground provisions that are attractive and tasty. Rather than the pasta and the English potato dishes with which they are very comfortable,” she said.

Archer-Bradshaw also raised the issue of high salt, fat and sugar intake, which she said can lead to children being overweight and be the main cause of cardiovascular diseases.

Chairman of the Barbados Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition Dr Kia Lewis opened her presentation by asking,”Are we setting our children up for success?”

“I want to say that the decisions that we are making for our children now is going to affect their health in adulthood and collectively it is going to affect the future health of our nation,” she pointed out.

“The health decisions that we are teaching our children in their formative years, that often lay the foundation for the health and practices that they are going to continue into adulthood and they are going to pass it onto their children.This is very much generational,” Dr Lewis said.

In May 2022, the Cabinet of Barbados approved the School Nutrition Policy and the Ministry of Education will be implementing strategies in the new school year to make the school environment a healthier one. (MR)

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SOURCE: AP — The World Health Organization says it’s holding an open forum to rename the disease monkeypox, after some critics raised concerns the name could be derogatory or have racist connotations.

In a statement Friday, the UN health agency said it has also renamed two families, or clades, of the virus, using Roman numerals instead of geographic areas, to avoid stigmatisation. The version of the disease formerly known as the Congo Basin will now be known as Clade one or I and the West Africa clade will be known as Clade two or II.

WHO said the decision was made following a meeting of scientists this week and in line with current best practices for naming diseases, which aims to “avoid causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional, or ethnic groups, and minimize any negative impact on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare.”

Numerous other diseases, including Japanese encephalitis, Marburg virus, Spanish influenza and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome have been named after the geographic areas where they first arose or were identified. WHO has not publicly suggested changing any of those names.

Monkeypox was first named in 1958 when research monkeys in Denmark were observed to have a “pox-like” disease, although they are not thought to be the animal reservoir.

WHO said it was also opening a way for the public to suggest new names for monkeypox, but did not say when any new name would be announced.

To date, there have been more than 31,000 cases of monkeypox identified globally since May, with the majority of those beyond Africa. Monkeypox has been endemic in parts of central and west Africa for decades and was not known to trigger large outbreaks beyond the continent until May.

WHO declared the global spread of monkeypox to be an international emergency in July and the US declared its own epidemic to be a national emergency earlier this month.

Outside of Africa, 98 percent of cases are in men who have sex with men. With only a limited global supply of vaccines, authorities are racing to stop monkeypox before it becomes entrenched as a new disease.

The post WHO plans to rename monkeypox over stigmatization concerns appeared first on Barbados Today.

Chief Medical Officer, Dr. The Most Honourable Kenneth George, is informing the public that Pfizer BioNTech, authorised by the Food and Drug Administration, has extended the recommended expiration dates of COVID-19 Vaccines from nine months to one year from the date of manufacture.

This means that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines available in Barbados with the manufacture date of November 2021 have a 12-month shelf life until October 31,

2022.

The Chief Medical Officer assures the public that the Pfizer COVID Vaccines administered remain safe and effective and still offer an opportunity for controlling the spread of COVID-19.  He states that the Pfizer vaccines for COVID-19 will therefore continue to be available until the end of October 2022.  The Ministry of Health and Wellness will continue to source COVID-19 vaccines on the open market.

The supporting documentation regarding this change in expiry date is entitled “Expiry Information for All Three Vaccine Presentations” and published on April 26, 2022.  It may be found at https://www.cvdvaccine-us.com/images/pdf/Expiry_Doc.pdf.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness, in the best interest of the public, will continue to provide updates on important matters particularly as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The post Ministry of Health and Wellness statement on change in expiry date of Pfizer Vaccine appeared first on Barbados Today.

As the sod was turned to construct a €$149million (more than US$150 million) paediatric and maternal hospital, the Guyana government on Sunday announced that contractors would have to abide by new internationally recognised contract terms that would see them bearing the bulk of the responsibilities for the design and build infrastructure model. The hospital, which ...

The region’s main public health agency has put residents of Barbados and other Caribbean states on alert for two new highly-contagious COVID-19 variants and the reemergence of polio in the Americas.

The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) also predicted that the BA.5 variant will cause a massive increase in COVID-19 cases across the region.

In an interview with CARPHA’s Communications Manager Carlon Kirton, following the World Health Organisation’s recent declaration of Monkeypox as a public health emergency of international concern, the agency’s Executive Director Dr Joy St John expressed grave concern about these developments. She cautioned that the situation could worsen because of vaccine hesitancy and an anti-vax campaign being waged in and outside of the region.

Dr St John said CARPHA has expanded its range of tests and increased testing for the sub-variant of the Omicron variant.

“It’s mainly BA.5, some BA.4. BA.5 is pushing everything else. But we are also seeing BE.1 and BF.1, which act just like BA.5 and spread very quickly,” she reported.

“We will continue to monitor what’s out there in the world, what’s of concern in terms of global transmission so that we would be able to keep on top of the detection tests like what we are doing for Monkeypox and the gene sequencing like what we are doing for COVID-19.”

The public health executive singled out the BA.5 sub-variant, cautioning that it is expected to be responsible for a jump in COVID-19 infections in the Caribbean.

“The need for PCR tests has reduced considerably as we have gone into this new phase of the pandemic. However, the need for gene sequencing has not. The [CARPHA] member states still want to know about gene sequencing because they need to keep on top of what is circulating and how they need to change management.

“For example, now that we have BA.5 circulating, the member states are aware they are going to get lots and lots and lots of cases. There may not be that many that are severe, and there may not be that many that go on to death, but they know there is going to be an increase in cases, so they are on the alert for that,” she said.

Meantime, the CARPHA boss cautioned that the disabling disease polio, which had been eliminated from the Americas more than 30 years ago, could resurface in the Caribbean.

The first case in this hemisphere in the last three decades was reported on July 21 in a young unvaccinated man in New York City. Health officials said he was infected by a strain related to the live oral polio vaccine, which is used in some parts of the world but has not been used in the US since 2000.

“I must confess that although polio has not been declared a public health emergency of international concern, because we are only looking at one case, it is a cause for concern for CARPHA,” Dr St John said.

“First of all, this region of the Americas eradicated polio decades ago. So, for us to see a new case, even though it is one, is of concern to me.”

She said this was particularly worrying because of an anti-vax campaign that surfaced during the COVID-19 pandemic and was affecting other immunisation efforts.

“Apart from the fact that there was an anti-vax sentiment outside of the Caribbean before COVID-19, since COVID-19 there has been an increase in anti-vaccination sentiments. Vaccine hesitancy is something that we are dealing with even for the pandemic. And so, our percentage coverage of immunisation for polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases has not been as good as it should be,” the senior public health official said.

Addressing the fallout from the anti-vax movement, she said it has dealt a devastating blow to the region’s vaccine uptake efforts.

“Vaccine hesitancy, anti-vax sentiment, and a serious campaign which is being waged through social media has definitely impacted the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines and has already started to impact the usual vaccination programmes,” Dr St John said.

“There are stories of persons who not only said they were not getting the COVID-19 vaccines, but they stopped their children from getting it and they stopped their elderly relatives, so it is very disturbing from that perspective. But once that kind of sentiment raises itself, it is going to impact on regular vaccination programmes,” she maintained.

Meantime, addressing the Monkeypox virus, the top CARPHA official noted that people are now presenting with new symptoms.

“The way in which this Monkeypox infection is showing up is different. People are speaking about really severe lesions in strange places. People are talking about the swelling of lymph nodes so that they protrude through the skin, even two inches out from where they normally would be. There are even reports of people who could not walk because their lymph nodes were so inflamed. So the way in which Monkeypox in this outbreak in non-endemic countries is exhibiting means people need to pay attention and people need to ensure they are not infected, because they are people who are infected and they are travelling,” Dr St John pointed out.

She added that while there is a vaccination for Monkeypox, it may be out of the reach of small developing countries such as Barbados, not only because the cost is prohibitive but also because it is in short supply.

(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)

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