Want to stay on top of the science and politics driving biotech today? Sign up to get our biotech newsletter in your inbox.

Hello! Hope your weekend was a blissful one. Today, we talk about AbbVie’s outsize marketing spend, see how GLP-1s are impacting cancer rates, and more.

Read the rest…

Basseterre, St. Kitts: The Ministry of Health has donated essential mobility aids to the Ministry of Community Empowerment and Department of Aging and Disability. The announcement about this donation was made by the St. Kitts Health Promotional Unit.

The Health Ministry made a significant contribution to the various departments of St. Kitts. The departments included Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment, Climate Action and Constituency Empowerment and Social Development & Gender Affairs; Youth Empowerment Ageing and Disability.

The donation consisted of 25 wheelchairs and 25 walkers. It is also to be noted that this generous donation was made possible through the previous assistance from the republic of China (Taiwan).

The donation was handed over to the ministries during a brief ceremony held on Friday, July 5, 2024. The kind gesture of the donation also highlighted the Ministry of Health’s commitment to supporting the vulnerable communities.

Representatives of all three ministries attended the event that underscored the government’s collaborative spirit in addressing the needs of the country’s elderly and disabled.

During the donation ceremony, the Acting Permanent Secretary of the Health Ministry, Curtis Martin, delivered brief remarks that expressed the Ministry’s dedication to working in partnership with other ministries to ensure the fulfilment of need of the people.

Department of Constituency Empowerment, Kelvina Salters, in accepting the donation on the behalf of the ministry said, “I want to thank the Ministry of Health for this generous donation. This is symbolic of the work that we’re doing and continue to do, which is to align our communities and community members with national initiatives.”

“As we do our daily work, which is quite granular at the community level, we have recognized several vulnerable persons who are in need of such donations, so we are pleased that we are able to respond quickly to these needs,” Kelvina added.

Concluding the ceremony, the Ministry of Health also thanked the Republic of China (Taiwan) for its invaluable support and partnership.

Santo Domingo. – Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Puerto Rico are among the Caribbean territories with the highest life expectancy, between 80 and 83 years, while other countries in the region, such as the Dominican Republic, Bahamas, or Dominica, have ranges that do not exceed 75 years.

The information is contained in the ranking “Life Expectancy by Country,” developed by World Population Review with data from the United Nations (UN), corresponding to 2023.
The platform details that the last places are Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis (72 years), and Haiti, with a life expectancy of 65 years.

The Dominican population would grow until 2060

According to current projections, World Population Review notes that “the population of the Dominican Republic is expected to grow until approximately 2060 when it will reach its peak population of 12.89 million.”
“After reaching its peak population, the Dominican Republic will experience a demographic decline that will leave the population at 11.01 million people,” the organization states.

It adds, “The fertility rate in the Dominican Republic is currently 2.36 births per woman, which has declined year after year since the 1950s. This decline in the fertility rate, in combination with negative net migration, has considerably slowed the population growth rate.”

It further highlights that “from 2019 to 2020, the population growth rate was 1.01%, which added about 109,000 people to the population. This overall decline in the population growth rate will eventually bring it to zero and then the decline in the country’s population will begin.”

NSO data

Last week, the National Statistics Office (ONE) presented its latest report on the X National Population and Housing Census conducted in 2022, stating that the Dominican population growth rate has declined to 1.11% since the beginning of the last century.

Several areas in St Michael and St James will be sprayed by the Ministry of Health’s Vector Control Unit this week, as it seeks to eliminate mosquito breeding sites.

The Unit will focus on St Michael for the first four days of the week.

On Monday it will target Henry Dunant Road,1st to 3rd North Friendship Drive, Friendship Terrace, 1st to 3rd Lowland Drive, Green Hill Main Road, Mahaica Gap, Storey Gap, Lewis Gap, and surrounding districts.

The following day the team will fog Small Land, Green Hill Main Road, Green Hill Nos. 1 to 4, Eden Lodge, Lakes Close, Johnson Land, Sorrel Lane, Middle Lane, White Hall Road, Medford Road, White Hall Nos.1 to 3, White Hall Terrace, White Hall Main Road, and environs.

Communities including Austin Drive Nos. 1 to 7, Eden Lodge Housing Area, Lodge Hill, Emerald Drive, Sapphire Drive, Garnet Drive, Topaz Drive, Lodge Hill Terrace, Pearl Drive, and Peach Court will be targeted on Wednesday.

On Thursday the Unit will visit Lodge Crescent, Lodge Hill, Rock Dundo Heights, Well Gap Nos. 1 to 4, Rock Dundo Park with avenues, White Hall Main Road, and Sunny Side Garden.

The fogging exercise for the week will conclude on Friday in St James, in the following districts: Hoytes Village, Canewood Road, Bagatelle Terrace with avenues, and Hoytes Terrace.

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.

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 Vector Control Unit will fog St Michael and St James appeared first on Barbados Today.

View the full post CARPHA: Take action to reduce spread of mosquito borne diseases on NOW Grenada.

Staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital laboratory staged a walkout on Friday in protest against severe health hazards in their working environment.

The action follows years of complaints about perilous and unacceptable conditions that have persisted despite repeated appeals for improvement.

“The laboratory staff has been extremely patient and long-suffering,” Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW)

Wayne Walrond told Barbados TODAY. “For several years, the staff . . . have been plagued with environmental problems.”

He said these issues have led to serious health complications among the staff, including acute respiratory ailments.

“Some workers would have experienced coughing with blood, and workers have been extremely distressed by the discomfort caused by the presence of mould,” the union official disclosed.

The QEH laboratory is not just an ageing facility but one that has become increasingly unfit for purpose, Walrond declared.

While management has made attempts to address the situation through interim measures such as cleaning, these efforts have proven insufficient. “The cleaning will have to be even more frequent if staff are to continue to function in the interim,” he stressed.

Walrond has called for the fast-tracking of a new facility, a project that has been in discussion for several years but has yet to materialise.

“It’s a matter of the situation with the lab and having to have proper accommodation,” he stated. “This must be dealt with as a matter of urgency.”

The NUPW official emphasised that the current state of the laboratory is untenable, and it is critical for the health and safety of the staff that a new, suitable facility be built as soon as possible.

A meeting with QEH management has been scheduled to discuss the matter further.

“The union will lend support to staff in any representation that would be required and will make itself available for the meeting,” Walrond said.

He pointed out that the issues faced by the QEH laboratory are part of a larger problem affecting many buildings, both old and new, across the island. Walrond called for a comprehensive discussion with various stakeholders, including builders, environmentalists, health professionals, and labour representatives, to focus on the design and construction of buildings in Barbados.

The NUPW deputy general secretary further called for a more proactive approach to safety and health.

Walrond stressed the need for comprehensive safety and health policies across both the public and private sectors and advocated for safety and health practices to be integrated into personal lives.

“Safety and health are our business on the job and off the job,” he said, urging a more holistic approach to living a safe and healthy life.

The post QEH laboratory staff stage walkout over ‘health hazards’ appeared first on Barbados Today.

View the full post Health facilities damaged in Carriacou and Petite Martinique on NOW Grenada.

Santo Domingo.- The Centers for Diagnostics and Advanced Medicine and Medical Conferences and Telemedicine (CEDIMAT) has become the first hospital in Santo Domingo to receive the prestigious Stroke Centers of Latin America certification from the WSO/SIECV.

This certification verifies that CEDIMAT adheres to international standards for managing and caring for patients with vascular events, as explained by Drs. Francisco Méndez, emergency manager, and Luis Eduardo Suazo, neurosurgeon and coordinator of the Neurosurgery service and stroke unit at CEDIMAT.

CEDIMAT was the pioneer in applying thrombolysis and mechanical thrombectomy treatments for patients with ischemic vascular conditions, crucial interventions that can be life-saving. This certification places CEDIMAT at the top of the quality scale, ensuring superior care for stroke patients compared to 90% of other countries. Thrombolysis, effective within the first 4 to 5 hours of an ischemic event, and thrombectomy, which can reverse mobility loss within the first 24 hours, are key treatments provided by the trained emergency staff at CEDIMAT.

The certification was granted after a thorough evaluation by the Certification Program of the Stroke Centers of Latin America and the Caribbean, involving representatives from the World Stroke Organization, the Ibero-American Society of Cerebrovascular Diseases, the Certification Program Coordinator, and local delegations.

When, in April, the federal government began requiring some cows to be tested for a strain of avian flu before their herds could be moved across state lines, it seemed like an obvious step to try to track and slow the virus that had started spreading among U.S. dairy cattle.

But Joe Armstrong, a veterinarian at the University of Minnesota extension school, feared the U.S. Department of Agriculture rule could lead to potential problems for his colleagues, who were in effect being deputized to implement it.

Read the rest…

Corporate Communications Specialist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Shane Sealy told Barbados TODAY that operations had resumed as usual yesterday evening as there had been “very, very minor damage” at the Martindales Road facility and most had already been addressed.

“Once the national shutdown was discontinued and the all-clear was given, we resumed normal services and visiting hours from six o’clock. Meanwhile, our clinics will open as normal (today) as well as our pharmacies,” he said.

Sealy also advised those patients whose surgeries or appointments were postponed due to the passage of the weather system to contact the hospital’s Patient Advice and Liaison Service at 536-4800 to be rescheduled.

“We are getting things back on track and we want them to reach out to us so we could let them know what to do,” he added.

The post All services resume at QEH appeared first on Barbados Today.