Staff Writer

#BArbados, July 27, 2023 – COVID-19 continues to move through the Caribbean infecting and claiming lives as Barbados recorded eight deaths between July 8 and July 21, 2023.

Eight hundred and twenty-one tests were conducted and from that 227 cases were found, giving a positivity rate of 27.65.

Now, the death toll for the country in relation to the virus is at 620.

This comes just a month after an outbreak on ward at Geriatric Hospital on the outskirts of the capital.

The Pan American Organization continues to inform countries on the importance of continuing public awareness on hand hygiene, cough and sneeze etiquette, and the importance of social distancing, despite the fact that we have nearly, if not entirely gone back to living life as it was before covid.

COVID-19 is still at large and so we must continue to be vigilant.

Staff Writer 

#TheBahamas, July 2, 2023 – As the rainy season begins and mosquitos become more frequent visitors, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) representative for The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, Dr. Eldonna Boisson, is assuring residents that both countries are well prepared to fight mosquito borne diseases, especially dengue fever.

She spoke to Magnetic Media recently detailing what the two countries had been doing.

“There has been really good preparedness in terms of detecting early which is key, if you can detect early then you can prevent spread, you can treat early to prevent illness,” she said.

Boisson explained that important steps included labs being able to detect the illness, hospitals and clinicians having the necessary equipment and medication to treat diseases.  She said those things are in place for the two countries.

“Those things are in place, there is ongoing surveillance– behind the scenes.  If you’re not having many cases people don’t know all the effort that goes in.”

While numbers were relatively low in the region, she warned that with the rainy season coming up residents could never be too careful but once again assured that the Governments were putting in the work.

“Later in the year there’s going to be some training.  PAHO is putting on some training for the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas in Vector Control,” she explained.

The Turks and Caicos has already started fogging exercises with one round completed since June.

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, June 22, 2023 – Congratulations are in order for the Turks and Caicos over its handling of the now confirmed toxigenic strain of cholera in the country, Magnetic Media  on Saturday June 17 spoke to Dr. Eldonna Boisson, the Pan American Health Organization representative for the Turks and Caicos and The Bahamas about the case.

“I really want to Congratulate the Turks and Caicos Islands because they had one case come in and they have not had spread it means they were able to detect it quickly, isolate and prevent the spread,” she said.

Boisson explained that the quick and complete response was part of a larger plan developed by the Caribbean and PAHO years prior.

“Before that case came in we would have at PAHO and the World Health Organization worked along with the UK and the Turks and Caicos and other Islands in the Caribbean to have them develop Cholera preparedness plans because we know there is a risk.”

The training had been sparked back in 2010  with the first outbreak of cholera in Haiti and was reworked for the current level of risk.

Boisson confirmed initial statements by Shaun Malcolm, Minister of Health indicating that there had been additional training and capacity building exercises to equip healthcare workers to deal with testing and other facets of the illness .

“There was a state of readiness– and Turks and Caicos and the others have pulled out those plans, dusted them off, done revisions, and had consultations with us, so they had a good plan.”

Boisson revealed along with the UK, PAHO had also stepped in to help the TCI with a Water Sanitation and Hygiene Assessment

While congratulating the country she urged the TCI government to use the detection of the highly contagious bacteria, as a learning experience to improve future response.

Staff writer

June 18, 2023 – As mental health continue to experience an elevated profile as a global health priority, PAHO reports, “A New Agenda for Mental Health in the Region of the Americas,” was launched on June 9th, 2023, and it highlights recommendations to better address mental health in the Americas following the COVID-19 pandemic which has worsened mental health issues.

The report comes following the establishment of the High-Level Commission on Mental Health and COVID-19, in May of 2022, which comprised 17 experts from Government, civil society, academia as well as those with lived experience of mental health conditions.

Their job was to give guidance to PAHO and its Member States on how to advance mental health in the Region during and after the pandemic.

The report provides countries with ten recommendations to improve mental health care and they are:

• Elevate mental health at the national and supranational levels.
• Integrate mental health into all policies.
• Increase the quantity and improve the quality of financing for mental health.
• Ensure the human rights of people living with mental health conditions.
• Promote and protect mental health across the life course.
• Improve and expand community-based mental health services and care.
• Strengthen suicide prevention.
• Adopt a gender transformative approach to mental health.
• Address racism and racial discrimination as a key determinant of mental health.
• Improve mental health data and research.

In light of this, Dr. Jarbas Barbosa  Director of the PAN American Health Organization (PAHO) called leaders and decision makers to take action, making sure mental health is placed at the top of political agendas and woven into all sectors and policies to better address the growing issue especially after the pandemic.

PAHO expressed that even though mental health has historically been a significant source of disability and mortality in the Americas, responsible for almost one-third of all years lived with a disability, the pandemic increased the risk factors including, grief and loss, unemployment and financial insecurity, and this was emphasized by Barbosa speaking at the launch. He maintained that COVID-19 severely impacted the mental health of the population of the Americas; hence the importance of the recommendations in the report.

In addition to the increase in mental health issues, the preponderance of those with a condition do not receive the necessary care whether that be therapy or medication.

PAHO reports that in 2020 more than 80 percent of those with a severe mental health condition, psychosis included, did not receive treatment.

This partly due to a lack of access to services to help with mental health and Barbosa expressed this is due to a variety of factors before the pandemic including: “low investment, only 3% of countries’ health budgets are allocated to mental health; a reliance on long-stay hospitalization when the majority of mental health problems can be resolved in the community; a chronic shortage of trained mental health personnel; and reduced access to services for those living in vulnerable situations.”

Considering the report as well as the facts highlighted, investing in mental health is key to bring about the best result in mitigating its impact on people of the Americas, and Dr. Epsy Campbell Barr, Chair of the Commission and former Vice-President of Costa Rica, spoke to this saying, “Investing in mental health is crucial to promote equitable and sustainable human development for all to live with well-being and dignity,” further fingering that mental health is a public issue, not private, which requires urgent and immediate attention.

In continuation, Dr. Nestor Mendez, Co-Chair of the Commission and Assistant Director General of the Organization of American States, expressed that mental health is now in their hands, that is the leaders in the region, to change how they approach handling it.

PAHO made reference to mental health statistics throughout the Americas, further highlighting the importance of addressing it in the best way possible.

Some of the statistics say:

• In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, major depressive disorders increased by 35 percent  and anxiety disorders by 32 percent .
• 65 percent of countries reported disruptions to essential mental health and substance use services in 2020. This number has decreased to 14 percent  in early 2023.
• 8 our of 10 individuals with a severe mental health condition do not receive treatment
• Suicide claims the lives of nearly 100,000 people each year.
• The regional age-adjusted suicide rate increased by 17 percent between 2000 – 2019.
• Depressive and anxiety disorders are the third and fourth leading causes of disability.

Mental health should not be taken lightly and should be treated like any other illness as it is in fact an illness and is just as dangerous as visually physically conditions.

Staff Writer

June 5, 2023 – A new resolution has been approved by health ministers from CARICOM alongside their counterparts in the Americas to accelerate actions to improve health for the indigenous populations.

With the resolution, countries will develop finance and put in place national health clients for the indigenous population.  This will ensure that they receive equal rights, that is their  access to the highest attainable physical health services.

Measures will be implemented to combat the social determinants of health, such as poverty, poor housing, and lack of access to education, economic opportunities, and water and sanitation which all unfortunately affects the indigenous populations immensely.

It also seeks to foster investment into the training of indigenous health care workers; and it plans to safely incorporate evidence-based traditional and complementary medicine into Indigenous health services.

Additionally, generating more disaggregated data, enabling countries to broaden their knowledge of the specific health situation of Indigenous populations, which is another goal highlighted, and can attract more improvements for the indigenous people as more countries will be informed.

Furthermore, an intercultural and intersectoral approach in the development of Indigenous health policies that overcome barriers pertaining to gender, geographic location, age, language, digital connectivity, was stressed by countries of the Americas, and for good reason as those barriers are influential in the low health standards.

Dr. Marcos Espinal, Assistant Director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), highlighted the necessity and urgency of the resolution.

He pointed to the fact that indigenous peoples in the Americas are more prone to experience higher rates of infectious disease like tuberculosis, as well as increased levels of non communicable diseases like diabetes. Also, for women, that is indigenous women maternal  health care is of very low quality and so, the resolution will improve it alongside adolescent health care including access to sexual and reproductive health services.

“This is why this resolution is so crucial for our region, because it is based on strategies that address the specific environmental and social contexts in which Indigenous persons live,” he added.

The resolution came on Tuesday May 30th during the 76th World Health Assembly (WHA), and is anticipated  to have significant implications for the Americas, home to more than 62 million Indigenous persons.

The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) said it will continue to work with countries of the Americas to ensure the health of Indigenous Populations.

Staff Writer   

#TurksandCaicos, May 15, 2023 – There has been a biosecurity breach in a shipment reportedly from the US and now Grand Turk is reporting sightings of raccoons; at least one of the animals, which is an invasive species, has been confirmed dead.

Accounts passed on to Magnetic Media say at least four of the dexterous mammals have been sighted.  A photo of one of them, seemingly dead, has been shared with our news team.

The shocking arrival of the raccoons is being attributed to accidental importation by unofficial sources with knowledge of the issue.  That source told the team the animals may have been in the country for a few months already after accidentally arriving, likely as stowaways, on a shipment via the port.

Raccoons, while small, are known for their remarkable agility and intelligence but are mischievous creatures and a general nuisance, tampering with farms and garbage cans.  But they are much more dangerous than a few overturned bins; raccoons can be extremely aggressive towards other animals, including pets, often biting and injuring them.  Arguably their most dangerous feature is their proclivity to rabies.

Rabies is a viral disease that turns those infected ‘rabid’ by attacking the nervous system.  Rabies works quickly infecting the brain and causing death in mammals, including human beings.  Rabies is fatal in nearly all cases.  The US Centers for Disease Control describes the progression of the disease:

“The first symptoms of rabies may be similar to the flu, including weakness or discomfort, fever, or headache.  There also may be discomfort, prickling, or an itching sensation at the site of the bite.  These symptoms may last for days.  Symptoms then progress to cerebral dysfunction, anxiety, confusion, and agitation.  As the disease progresses, the person may experience delirium, abnormal behavior, hallucinations, hydrophobia (fear of water), and insomnia.  The acute period of disease typically ends after 2 to 10 days.  Once clinical signs of rabies appear, the disease is nearly always fatal, and treatment is typically supportive.”

Most countries in the Caribbean do not have rabies issues having eliminated the disease; the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) says only four countries continue to report cases of canine rabies: Bolivia, Guatemala, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  Rabies is one of the reasons that many Caribbean countries have strict laws against importing pets from North America where the disease is prevalent in raccoons, skunks and bats.  It is easily passed on to dogs especially through bites.

Thankfully human cases of the disease are very rare and preventable with vaccination.  In addition, the animals do not breed quickly.  We have reached out to the government to find out about the breach and were told the Ministry of Agriculture is working on a report on the infestation.

#TheBahamas, May 5, 2023 – A pledge to close the growing immunization gaps was signed by Caribbean country leaders during the staging of the 29th Special Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) held last week  in Nassau Bahamas; it’s being called:   The Declaration of Nassau.

“We commit ourselves to the pursuit of initiatives and targets to be implemented to achieve an improved health status of our populations within the next five years, emphasizing leadership, strategic planning, management, implementation and resource mobilisation in the context of health sector reform processes that are underway,” says Article 1 of the Declaration.

There are seven articles in all.

The Declaration of Nassau devotes Governments to make efforts to fortify the national immunization programs with evidence-informed interventions, which includes prioritizing immunity gaps among children (which was worsened by COVID-19), elderly people, pregnant women, persons with pre-existing conditions, health workers and those living in situations that makes them vulnerable to contracting certain illnesses.

Additionally, it calls on and encourages countries to keep strong the regional targets for the control and elimination of measles, polio, Hepatitis B, rubella, tetanus, bacterial meningitis and cervical cancer, and proffers the development of policies and strategies to address vaccine hesitancy and infodemics (misinformation and false information).

The Governments under the Declaration, signed on Thursday April 27th, 2023, are committed to ensuring that Immunization is paramount on the health policy agendas in the political eye and for long-term sustainable financing.

These actions are evidently necessary for the region as pointed out by Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO Director in his address at the meeting.

He said, there is “great risk” of the re-emergence of diseases which had already been eliminated from our region,” due to the decline in “Immunization coverage,” as further expressed by Dr. Karen Broome, Immunization Advisor for the Caribbean Subregion at PAHO.

To support the initiatives outlined on the Declaration, Barbosa referred to a collaboration between PAHO and the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), to use refunds from COVAX ( the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools [ACT] Accelerator,  a global collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable access to COVID19 tests, treatments and vaccines), to support routine vaccination for Member States.

Staff Writer

May 1, 2023 – The Canadian Government and the PAN American Health Organisation (PAHO) are partnering to fortify vaccine manufacturing capacity to increase access to vaccination in Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO Director, had discussed the collaboration during a visit to PAHO Headquarters by Mr. Jason Tolland, Director General for South America and Inter-American Affairs at Global Affairs Canada (GAC).

Mr. Tolland expressed that Canada is happy to contribute to the cause.

“Canada is looking forward to the implementation of its $15 million support to PAHO’s COVID-19 Manufacturing Platform to strengthen vaccine production capacities in Latin America and the Caribbean,” he said.

Through the $15 million, funded by (GAC), PAHO is able to and will strengthen its work to improve the existing regional vaccine production capacities, supporting its Regional Platform for Advancing the Production of Vaccines and Other Health Technologies for COVID-19 in the Americas.

This shows Canada is keeping its promise to help boost the  manufacturing of vaccines and medicines in low and middle income countries as announced last year at the G20 Summit. And, it also adds to the country’s assistance streak from 2021 to increase vaccines for vulnerable populations in the America’s with a large input of C$ 50 million in 2021 and C$ 45 million in 2023.

Barbosa gave thanks to Canada for their support as this objective, “to expand regional production…for medical products… is at the heart of,” PAHO’s strategy to “end the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and a key step towards achieving universal access to health.”

PAHO is doing well so far to reach its goals of advancing vax manufacturing.

It has aided 37 countries and territories these past few years to have better access to COVID vaccines and this includes the development and establishment of national plans for vaccine development and use. Also, they have managed to lend a hand in the expanding of cold chain storage and transportation capacities and mainstreaming gender equality surrounding vaccines in 32 countries and territories.

The future for PAHO is looking very productive as the next two years will see their assistance toward Bio-Manguinhos, (a company responsible for the development and production of vaccines) in planning and implementing clinical trials for vaccine development.

The regional health body will also give support to Sinergium Biotech (pharmaceutical company) in technology transfer and the sourcing of the required equipment for the production of vaccines.

Staff Writer

April 28, 2023 – Dr. Margherita Ghiselli, PAHO Immunization Advisor during a PAHO press conference update on vaccination on Thursday, April 20th, 2023, revealed that more than eleven thousand children in the Caribbean region below 1 years old, nearly 1 in 10, are shockingly not fully vaccinated.

There are places in the Caribbean where medical services, particularly those for vaccination are not in the reach of residents. Additionally, it is quite common in the region for people to display a lack of confidence in vaccines for a number of reasons. Ghiselli highlighted this, stating that the number of unvaccinated children are linked to inaccessibility and doubtfulness because of fake news.

“this is due in part to services not always being available but also to a large degree,  to vaccine hesitancy which is linked to misinformation,” she maintained.

She also said the pandemic impacted coverage rates.

The potential consequences of this is the Caribbean is left unprotected as new outbreaks are possible, especially since the Caribbean is a tourism hit spot; in fact, its number one industry, hence the importance of filling those gaps in the region’s vaccination coverage, as pointed out by Ghiselli.

To counter these issues, PAHO is collaborating with ministries of health and partners across the region to bring about a significant increase in vaccination coverage and to further educate the general public and health care workers on vaccines and vaccination.

Ghiselli stated also that PAHO, UNICEF and other collaborators which were not named, have surveys and data collection tools to better understand the concerns surrounding covid vaccines among the people for instance, doubt of the vaccine safety especially given the speed at which they were developed, and the efficacy since people can still become infected whether it be asymptomatic or mild, according to results stated by Ghiselli.

To further increase vaccine coverage, PAHO has also been working with Caribbean member states to fortify their vaccination programs and “close immunity gaps.”

Not only that, they are also making efforts to conduct behavioural research to aid in education on Immunization studies and Communication tools for the general public, health workers and decision makers alike.

Furthermore, PAHO agents are in close workings with professional associations to ensure the involvement of vaccine and vaccination training in the curriculum of medical schools, nursing schools and other associated institutions to encourage advocacy around vaccines.

Editorial Staff

March 23, 2023 – The region is once again facing off with a public health risk and while not new,  the return, prevalence and lethal impact of the virus is wreaking new and heartbreaking havoc; it has also caused the Pan American Health Organization to issue warnings to Member countries urging them to prepare and reinforce their responses to Chikunguna; transmitted by mosquito and responsible for nearly 100 deaths last year.

According to PAHO, the Americas saw an increase in deaths and cases from ChikV in 2022. In fact, PAHO charted 273,685 cases and 87 deaths in 2022; 14 countries and territories in the Americans were reporting.

“This figure is higher than that observed in the same period of 2021 (137,025 cases, including 12 deaths),” according to PAHO/WHO.

In addition, the occurrence of the diseases has gone beyond the historical areas of transmission reported since 2014, which leaked into the first few weeks of 2023.

Paraguay and Brazil were identified in the March 8 report.  The pair of South/Central American countries carry the highest incidence rates of 1,128 cases per 100,000 population.  For Paraguay and 14.2 cases per 100,000 population and for Brazil or 115,539 cases and 33 deaths were reported in the first epidemiological week (EW) of 2023.

For Paraguay, between December and February, a total of 34,659 cases were categorised as probable and confirmed, including 2,910 hospitalizations and 34 deaths.

It is unimaginable that after pushing down the instance and detrimental impacts of ChikV that any nation would count 34 people dead as a result of the mosquito borne virus.  While control of the virus is relatively good, progress on life-saving, preventative medical intervention is stagnant.

“While there are several vaccines currently in different stages of development (as of Dec 2022) they are yet to be licensed. There is no commercial vaccine available to protect against chikungunya virus infection,” informs the World Health Organization.

Meanwhile, the virus spread chiefly by the Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquitoes is giving no indication of slowing down in the two nations cited as concerning by PAHO.

“Of total of cases reported (in Paraguay) during this period, 93% of cases (32,258/34,659) and 97% (33/34) of deaths were reported between EW 1 and 8 in 2023,” according to PAHO/WHO.

For Brazil, in 2023, between January and February, there were 35,566 probable and confirmed cases; a 109.6 percent relative increase compared to the same period in 2022. One death is confirmed as due to ChikV; 13 others are still under investigation.