Health and education officials in Barbados are sharing ideas on how to accelerate the removal of ultra-processed products from schools across the region.

They are hoping this will be one of several strategic approaches to address the issue of childhood obesity, which they said has become very worrisome.

They are holding discussions at a two-day event which opened on Tuesday at the Courtyard by Marriott Bridgetown, hosted by the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) and the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO), and attended by several local and regional stakeholders.

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SEATTLE (AP) — The next big advance in cancer treatment could be a vaccine.

After decades of limited success, scientists say research has reached a turning point, with many predicting more vaccines will be out in five years.

These aren’t traditional vaccines that prevent disease, but shots to shrink tumors and stop cancer from coming back. Targets for these experimental treatments include breast and lung cancer, with gains reported this year for deadly skin cancer melanoma and pancreatic cancer.

“We’re getting something to work. Now we need to get it to work better,” said Dr. James Gulley, who helps lead a center at the National Cancer Institute that develops immune therapies, including cancer treatment vaccines.

More than ever, scientists understand how cancer hides from the body’s immune system. Cancer vaccines, like other immunotherapies, boost the immune system to find and kill cancer cells. And some new ones use mRNA, which was developed for cancer but first used for COVID-19 vaccines.

For a vaccine to work, it needs to teach the immune system’s T cells to recognize cancer as dangerous, said Dr. Nora Disis of UW Medicine’s Cancer Vaccine Institute in Seattle. Once trained, T cells can travel anywhere in the body to hunt down danger.

“If you saw an activated T cell, it almost has feet,” she said. “You can see it crawling through the blood vessel to get out into the tissues.”

Patient volunteers are crucial to the research.

Kathleen Jade, 50, learned she had breast cancer in late February, just weeks before she and her husband were to depart Seattle for an around-the-world adventure. Instead of sailing their 46-foot boat, Shadowfax, through the Great Lakes toward the St. Lawrence Seaway, she was sitting on a hospital bed awaiting her third dose of an experimental vaccine. She’s getting the vaccine to see if it will shrink her tumor before surgery.

“Even if that chance is a little bit, I felt like it’s worth it,” said Jade, who is also getting standard treatment.

Progress on treatment vaccines has been challenging. The first, Provenge, was approved in the U.S. in 2010 to treat prostate cancer that had spread. It requires processing a patient’s own immune cells in a lab and giving them back through IV. There are also treatment vaccines for early bladder cancer and advanced melanoma.

Early cancer vaccine research faltered as cancer outwitted and outlasted patients’ weak immune systems, said Olja Finn, a vaccine researcher at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

“All of these trials that failed allowed us to learn so much,” Finn said.

As a result, she’s now focused on patients with earlier disease since the experimental vaccines didn’t help with more advanced patients. Her group is planning a vaccine study in women with a low-risk, noninvasive breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ.

More vaccines that prevent cancer may be ahead too. Decades-old hepatitis B vaccines prevent liver cancer and HPV vaccines, introduced in 2006, prevent cervical cancer.

In Philadelphia, Dr. Susan Domchek, director of the Basser Center at Penn Medicine, is recruiting 28 healthy people with BRCA mutations for a vaccine test. Those mutations increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. The idea is to kill very early abnormal cells, before they cause problems. She likens it to periodically weeding a garden or erasing a whiteboard.

Others are developing vaccines to prevent cancer in people with precancerous lung nodules and other inherited conditions that raise cancer risk.

“Vaccines are probably the next big thing” in the quest to reduce cancer deaths, said Dr. Steve Lipkin, a medical geneticist at New York’s Weill Cornell Medicine, who is leading one effort funded by the National Cancer Institute. “We’re dedicating our lives to that.”

People with the inherited condition Lynch syndrome have a 60% to 80% lifetime risk of developing cancer. Recruiting them for cancer vaccine trials has been remarkably easy, said Dr. Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who is leading two government-funded studies on vaccines for Lynch-related cancers.

“Patients are jumping on this in a surprising and positive way,” he said.

Drugmakers Moderna and Merck are jointly developing a personalized mRNA vaccine for patients with melanoma, with a large study to begin this year. The vaccines are customized to each patient, based on the numerous mutations in their cancer tissue. A vaccine personalized in this way can train the immune system to hunt for the cancer’s mutation fingerprint and kill those cells.

But such vaccines will be expensive.

“You basically have to make every vaccine from scratch. If this wasn’t personalized, the vaccine could probably be made for pennies, just like the COVID vaccine,” said Dr. Patrick Ott of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

The vaccines under development at UW Medicine are designed to work for many patients, not just a single patient. Tests are underway in early and advanced breast cancer, lung cancer and ovarian cancer. Some results may come as soon as next year.

Todd Pieper, 56, from suburban Seattle, is participating in testing for a vaccine intended to shrink lung cancer tumors. His cancer spread to his brain, but he’s hoping to live long enough to see his daughter graduate from nursing school next year.

“I have nothing to lose and everything to gain, either for me or for other people down the road,” Pieper said of his decision to volunteer.

One of the first to receive the ovarian cancer vaccine in a safety study 11 years ago was Jamie Crase of nearby Mercer Island. Diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer when she was 34, Crase thought she would die young and had made a will that bequeathed a favorite necklace to her best friend. Now 50, she has no sign of cancer and she still wears the necklace.

She doesn’t know for sure if the vaccine helped, “But I’m still here.”

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BBC – A mother-of-three has been jailed for more than two years for inducing an abortion after the legal limit.

Carla Foster, 44, received the medication following a remote consultation where she was not honest about how far along her pregnancy was.

The “pills by post” scheme, introduced in lockdown, allows pregnancies up to 10 weeks to be terminated at home.

However, Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard the woman was between 32-34 weeks pregnant when she took them.

Abortion is legal up to 24 weeks. However, after 10 weeks the procedure is carried out in a clinic.

Prosecutors argued Foster had provided false information knowing she was over the time limit and had made online searches which they said indicated “careful planning”.

The court heard between February and May 2020 she had searched “how to hide a pregnancy bump”, “how to have an abortion without going to the doctor” and “how to lose a baby at six months”.

Based on the information she provided the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), she was sent the tablets because it was estimated she was seven weeks pregnant.

Her defence argued that lockdown and minimising face-to-face appointments had changed access to healthcare and so instead she had to search for information online.

“The defendant may well have made use of services had they been available at the time,” said her barrister Barry White. “This will haunt her forever.”

On 11 May 2020, having taken the abortion pills, an emergency call was made at 18:39 BST saying she was in labour.

The baby was born not breathing during the phonecall and was confirmed dead about 45 minutes later.

A post-mortem examination recorded the baby girl’s cause of death as stillbirth and maternal use of abortion drugs and she was estimated to be between 32 and 34 weeks’ gestation.

Foster, from Staffordshire, already had three sons before she became pregnant again in 2019.

The court heard she had moved back in with her estranged partner at the start of lockdown while carrying another man’s baby.

The judge accepted she was “in emotional turmoil” as she sought to hide the pregnancy.

Foster was initially charged with child destruction, which she denied.

She later pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion, which was accepted by the prosecution.

Leniency letter ‘not appropriate’

Sentencing, judge Mr Justice Edward Pepperall said it was a “tragic” case, adding that if she had pleaded guilty earlier he may have been able to consider suspending her jail sentence.

He said the defendant was “wracked by guilt” and had suffered depression and said she was a good mother to three children, one of whom has special needs, who would suffer from her imprisonment.

She received a 28-month sentence, 14 of which will be spent in custody with the remainder on licence.

Ahead of Monday’s hearing, a letter co-signed by a number of women’s health organisations was sent to the court calling for a non-custodial sentence.

However, the judge said it was “not appropriate” and that his duty was “to apply the law as provided by Parliament”.

He told the defendant the letter’s authors were “concerned that your imprisonment might deter other women from accessing telemedical abortion services and other late-gestation women from seeking medical care or from being open and honest with medical professionals”.

But he said it also “has the capacity to be seen as special pleading by those who favour wider access to abortions and is, in my judgment, just as inappropriate as it would be for a judge to receive a letter from one of the groups campaigning for more restrictive laws”.

‘Archaic law’

The sentencing has sparked outcry among women’s rights organisations and campaigners.

BPAS said it was “shocked and appalled” by the woman’s sentence which they said was based on an “archaic law”.

“No woman can ever go through this again,” said its chief executive, Clare Murphy.

“Over the last three years, there has been an increase in the numbers of women and girls facing the trauma of lengthy police investigations and threatened with up to life imprisonment under our archaic abortion law,” she said.

“Vulnerable women in the most incredibly difficult of circumstances deserve more from our legal system.”

She said MPs must do more to offer protection so “no more women in these desperate circumstances are threatened with prison again”.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Stella Creasy called for “urgent reform”.

“The average prison sentence for a violent offence in England is 18 months,” she said in a tweet.

“A woman who had an abortion without following correct procedures just got 28 months under an 1868 act – we need urgent reform to make safe access for all women in England, Scotland and Wales a human right.”

The Crown Prosecution Service said: “These exceptionally rare cases are complex and traumatic.

“Our prosecutors have a duty to ensure that laws set by Parliament are properly considered and applied when making difficult charging decisions.”

When asked whether the prime minister was confident criminalising abortion in some circumstances was the right approach, Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson said the current laws struck a balance.

“Our laws as they stand balance a woman’s right to access safe and legal abortions with the rights of an unborn child,” he said.

“I’m not aware of any plans to address that approach.”

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(AFP) — The virus causing record cases of avian influenza in birds across the world is changing rapidly, experts have warned, as calls increase for countries to vaccinate their poultry.

While emphasising that the risk to humans remains low, the experts who spoke to AFP said that the surging number of bird flu cases in mammals was a cause for concern.

Since first emerging in 1996, the H5N1 avian influenza virus had previously been confined to mostly seasonal outbreaks.

But “something happened” in mid-2021 that made the group of viruses much more infectious, according to Richard Webby, the head of a World Health Organization collaborating centre studying influenza in animals.

Since then, outbreaks have lasted all year round, spreading to new areas and leading to mass deaths among wild birds and tens of millions of poultry being culled.

Webby, who is a researcher at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the US city of Memphis, told AFP it was “absolutely” the largest outbreak of avian influenza the world had seen.

He led research, published this week in the journal Nature Communications, showing how the virus rapidly evolved as it spread from Europe into North America.

The study said the virus increased in virulence, which means it causes more dangerous disease, when in arrived in North America.

The researchers also infected a ferret with one of the new strains of bird flu.

The found an unexpectedly “huge” amount of the virus in its brain, Webby said, indicating it had caused more serious disease than previous strains.

Emphasising that the risk in humans was still low, he said that “this virus is not being static, it’s changing”.

“That does increase the potential that even just by chance” the virus could “pick up genetic traits that allow it to be more of a human virus,” he said.

In rare cases, humans have contracted the sometimes deadly virus, usually after coming in close contact with infected birds.

– ‘Scares us’ –

The virus has also been detected in a soaring number of mammals, which Webby described as a “really, really troubling sign”.

Last week Chile said that nearly 9,000 sea lions, penguins, otters, porpoises and dolphins have died from bird flu along its north coast since the start of the year.

Most mammals are believed to have contracted the virus by eating an infected bird.

But Webby said that what “scares us the most” are indications from a Spanish mink farm, or among sea lions off South America, that the virus could be transmitting between mammals.

Ian Brown, virology head at the UK’s Animal and Plant Health Agency, said there has not yet been “clear evidence that this virus is easily sustaining in mammals.”

While the virus is changing to become “more efficient and more effective in birds,” it remains “unadapted to humans,” Brown told AFP.

Avian viruses bind to different receptors on the host cell than human viruses, Webby said.

It would take “two or three minor changes in one protein of the viruses” to become more adapted to humans, he said.

“That is what we’re really looking out for.”

– Vaccinating poultry –

One way to bring down the number of total bird flu cases, and therefore reduce the risk to humans, would be for countries to vaccinate their poultry, Webby said.

A few nations including China, Egypt and Vietnam have already held vaccination campaigns for poultry.

But many other countries have been reluctant due to import restrictions in some areas, and fears vaccinated birds that nonetheless get infected could slip through the net.

In April, the United States started testing several vaccine candidates for potential use on birds.

France recently said it hopes to start vaccinating poultry as early as autumn this year.

Christine Middlemiss, the UK’s chief veterinary officer, said that vaccinating poultry was not “a silver bullet because the virus changes constantly”.

But traditionally reluctant countries should consider vaccinating poultry more often, Middlemiss told AFP at an event at the UK’s embassy in Paris last week.

World Organisation for Animal Health director general Monique Eloit said that the issue of vaccinating poultry should be “on the table”.

After all, “everyone now knows that a pandemic is not just a fantasy — it could be a reality,” she added.

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Director of the Barbados Drug Service (BDS), Maryam Karga-Hinds, has provided an update regarding some of the drugs which have been affected by recent supply challenges.

Karga-Hinds stated that with respect to the steroid Prednisolone, which is used to treat several conditions, including asthma and Long-COVID, there have been a number of delays in shipment from the contracted supplier, causing the need for a second supplier to be contracted. The shipment of this drug is now scheduled to arrive in two to three weeks. The Drug Service is also currently searching for stock that is readily available.

Additionally, she said there has been an issue with the drug Androcur (Cyproterone), which is used to treat prostate cancer, where the manufacturers have been experiencing shortages with obtaining the raw materials. This has resulted in rationing, leading to buyers not receiving the amounts ordered from the suppliers.

Karga-Hinds noted that the Barbados Drug Service contracted a generic supplier to fill the need, but the product has to be manufactured and the generic is not expected to be ready before the end of June. There is a limited supply on island.

She further stated that in the past few months, there have been significant challenges with Epilim which is used to treat epilepsy. She pointed out that this is not a product which can be easily interchanged.

The local agent has indicated that small quantities of the 300 mg and 500 mg have been shipped, however, the 300 mg strength is scheduled for discontinuation by year-end. The Drug Service is actively looking for a replacement product.

The Director indicated that the supplier of Ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory drug, has advised that a limited supply is available on island and should be ready for sale shortly.

She also shared that a shipment of Ventolin liquid, which is used to treat asthma, is on its way to the island adding that, recently, a quantity of this drug expired and had to be destroyed because of the lack of demand. Ventolin tablet is no longer on the Barbados national drug formulary.

Karga-Hinds expressed regret over any challenges experienced by the public as it relates to availability of medication. She stated that the management and staff of the Barbados Drug Service will continue to do all in their capacity to re-establish supply of the items that are out of stock.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness is committed to updating the public with relevant information as it becomes available.

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Tobacco use remains a major public health concern in the Caribbean Region. There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke. The use of tobacco products in any form harms nearly every organ of the body, irrespective of whether it is smoked, smokeless, or electronic. Of all the forms of tobacco use, most common in the Caribbean region is cigarette smoking. Cigarette smoking is the number one risk factor for lung cancer. Using other tobacco products such as cigars or pipes also increases the risk for this disease.

Second-hand smoke exposure causes stroke, lung cancer, and coronary heart disease in adults; and acute respiratory infections and severe asthma in children. It is a preventable risk factor for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), which are the leading cause of death, disease and disability among Caribbean people. 

This year, World No Tobacco Day focuses on Grow Food, Not Tobacco. This campaign advocates for ending tobacco cultivation and switching to more sustainable crops that improve food security and nutrition. The campaign observed annually on 31 May, also informs the public on the dangers of direct use, and exposure to tobacco.

In the Caribbean Region, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death and disability – 76.8 per cent of the total deaths (non-Latin Caribbean, excluding Haiti) were due to NCDs in 2016. Cardiovascular diseases 30.8 per cent and cancer 17.2 per cent are the leading causes of death due to NCD, both linked to tobacco use. Many of these persons die in the prime of their lives before the age of 70 years old. The prevalence of smokers for overall tobacco products ranged from 57.2 per cent prevalence (95 per cent CI 48.4 to 65.4 percent ) to 16.2 per cent (95 percent CI 11.2 to 23.0 per cent ). 

According to the Report on Tobacco Control in the Region of the Americas (2018) Caribbean countries have the highest levels of tobacco experimentation before the age of 10.

Dr. Joy St. John, Executive Director at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) warned: “Smokeless does not mean harmless. Nicotine in e-cigarettes is a highly addictive drug and can damage children’s developing brains. Children and adolescents who use e-cigarettes at least double their chance of smoking cigarettes later in life. Preventing tobacco product use among youth is therefore critical. It is important that we educate children and adolescents about the harms of nicotine and tobacco product use. We must work to prevent future generations from seeing such products as ‘normal.’”

In 2008, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) endorsed the recommendation to ban smoking in public spaces. Later, in 2012, CARICOM regulated a standard for labelling retail packages of tobacco products with health warnings. Caribbean civil society organisations (CSOs), working in collaboration with local governments and international partners, have led the charge in fighting for significant gains in tobacco control in the Caribbean region.

Dr Heather Armstrong, Head, Chronic Disease and Injury said: “At CARPHA, we believe that reducing the harm caused by tobacco use requires a collective approach, where government, civil society, and the individual play a critical role. CARPHA promotes the prevention of tobacco use in all forms and commitment to the WHO FCTC. The focus on tobacco control deals with the youth of the Region. Children and adolescents who use e-cigarettes at least double their chance of smoking cigarettes later in life.”

The Chronic Diseases and Injury Department of CARPHA provides leadership, strategic direction, coordinates and implements technical cooperation activities directed towards the prevention and control of NCDs in CARPHA Member States. CARPHA’s message for prevention of tobacco product use has spread across its Member States.

In 2018, CARPHA in partnership with the University of the West Indies (UWI), Global Health Diplomacy Program at the University of Toronto, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the Healthy Caribbean Coalition evaluated the Port of Spain Declaration to learn which mandates helped to prevent and control NCDs. Taxation, smoke-free public places mandate, and mandatory labelling of tobacco products are some of the leading policies making the biggest impact on reduction of tobacco use in the Caribbean regions.

CARPHA urges Member States to work together to prevent and reduce the use of all forms of tobacco products, and scale-up efforts to implement their commitments under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). By doing so, the negative impact of smoking and its consequences on the health of our people, especially the younger generation, and the tremendous burden on the economies of the countries in our Region, will greatly be reduced. (CARPHA) 

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Barbadian men need to come forward and be tested for prostate cancer. This was the plea made by president of the Barbados Cancer Society, Professor R David Rosin, as he spoke during Sunday’s Prostate Cancer Walk.

The walk was recently launched to encourage more men to get tested for the disease.

Professor Rosin said even though more Barbadians are coming forward to be tested, the numbers among men are still worryingly low, and needed to see a change.

“Men I think don’t like to show weakness, so they don’t come forward. That’s why we really [need] more education … cancer is not such a disaster, in fact in the rest of the world [prostate cancer] is the least worrying, because men can live with it. Unfortunately, in men of African descent it’s more aggressive, so they need to come forward and they need to be sensible. Forget the idea that it’s showing weakness … come forward,” he said.

While noting the results of a recent trial which involved 565 men over 40 that showed thousands of Barbadian men as young as 40 have a specific DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecule gene that predisposes them to the development of prostate cancer, Rosin stressed it was vital for men to come out in their numbers and get tested as soon as possible in order for necessary treatment to take place.

“In Barbados, prostate cancer is the most common cancer that we have. We roughly have in the last census in 2018, 325 men with prostate cancer. When you consider that it’s only half the population being men, that is a very high percentage. I think Barbados is the third highest in the world for prostate cancer [so] it’s vital that we diagnose this as early as possible.

“As with any [other] cancer, if we diagnose it early, then of course it’s very treatable. The whole idea of today’s walk is to really bring everybody’s attention to come forward and be screened.” (SB)

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There was a steady stream of men into the Cancer Support Services Dayrells Road office on Saturday as they took part in its Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) screen.

Reporting that over 150 men had been screened since the doors opened at 9 a.m., Executive Director Janette Lynton said the organisation is seeing an increase in the number of men coming forward to be tested for prostate cancer, the number one killing cancer in the island.

“We are pleased because we are seeing first timers and younger men coming forward, which means the message is getting out there. However, we would love to see more ,” she said.

Pointing out that the PSA test is a blood test, which checks the level of PSA, she reminded people that if a high level is detected, this does not always mean that a male has prostate cancer, as infections and other conditions could be the cause.

“It is always best to take the results to your physician and your physician will determine what further assessment you will need,” she said.

Speaking to Barbados TODAY on the importance of men getting tested, Lynton said that early detection means that treatment will be more successful.

“Early detection is the key,” she said, adding that the next screening will be held in six weeks. (JB)

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Nurses need opportunities and resources to ensure they can sustainably protect the health of the nation, says acting Chief Nursing Officer Annastacia Jordan.

She said it’s critical that nurses are further trained in various skills to enhance what they offer professionally and are equipped with the necessary tools.

“We must protect and support our nurses by providing the needed education and the resources to deliver safe and effective nursing care. As we look to the future, we must transform our profession from invisible to invaluable in the eyes of the public… We must chart the future direction of nursing, to build capacity in all areas, to ensure the sustainable growth of our profession [and] to meet the ever changing complex health-care needs of our citizens,” she said, while addressing a ceremony at Savannah Hotel on Friday to launch Nurses’ Week 2023.

“As such, our goal is to strengthen our health-care systems by investing in our workforce to address the changing and growing health needs of our population. Upscaling our nursing skills and capacity is an important step in giving nurses a greater say in decisions, affecting scopes of practice, competence and safety.

“Nurses will be better able to manage client conditions using innovative ways to work within existing constraints and perform their jobs more effectively. Consequently, our practice will play a strategic role in the future delivery of more efficient, accessible, affordable, acceptable health-care services for Barbadians and those visiting our shores through the pandemic.”

In his remarks, Minister of Health and Wellness, Senator Dr Jerome Walcott said that although the local nursing fraternity is faced with a myriad of issues, including fighting non-communicable diseases and the migration of health-care workers, Government is committed to putting measures in place to ensure the health-care industry is a desirable sector in which to work.

“In order to adequately address these challenges, we must pay close attention to the entire health workforce and especially the nursing component while ensuring that it remains fit-for-purpose to effectively deal with the aforementioned multitude of changing health concerns.”

The Health Minister said: “My Government has and continues to make significant investments in improving the capacity of the nursing profession. We recognise that nurses are critical in the government’s road map to achieving the sustainable development goals and ensuring Barbados’ commitment to universal health coverage.”

Walcott explained that his ministry has been listening to the complaints of health-care workers and is addressing them.

“We have been listening to your complaints about nursing shortages and conditions of work and lack of opportunities. We will work with you in this regard.”

He added that training opportunities are being provided and nurses are being trained in the areas of dermatology and public health. He said that midwifery training will resume next January.

Walcott also indicated that 40 people will soon be trained in pediatric nursing at  the diploma level.

The theme for Nurses’ Week this year is Our Nurses, our Future. The week is internationally recognised from May 6 to May 12. (SZB) 

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Clad in blue t-shirts bearing the words ‘Accept’, ‘Understand’, ‘Love’, the Autism Association of Barbados took to the streets this morning to help build awareness of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Dozens of people participated in the Autism Awareness Heroes Walk, which is part of a series of events to mark Autism Awareness Month. A workshop on the tested tools for ASD and an awareness drive were among the other events held throughout April.

President of the association, Frank Johnson, said the annual walk is a means of educating the public on many traits and forms of the disorder.

“Being a spectrum disorder, of course, it affects people profoundly as well as lightly, but we are here to cover all of the bases today,” he told Barbados TODAY.

Under the watchful eye of the Barbados Police Service, participants walked from the headquarters of the  Barbados Council for the Disabled located at Garrison, St Michael, to Hastings Road, through Dayrells Road and back. (JB)

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