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Education, Health

PANCAP hosts youth meeting to discuss ending AIDS by 2030

Published 19 April 2017

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad — The Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP) will host a meeting of youth leaders from 19 Caribbean countries on April 21 and 22, 2017 in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

The focus of the forum will be a discussion on the role of youth in the national and regional response to HIV and AIDS; participants will also be involved in formulating and agreeing on a framework for regional youth advocacy.

Senator Robert Browne, minister of health, wellness and the environment, St Vincent and the Grenadines and chair of the executive board of PANCAP, will deliver the keynote address at the opening ceremony on Friday, April 21.

Health, International news, Local news, News

top 10 Fattest country in the world that fall under the UN.

Published 12 April 2017

It is interesting to see that St. kitts & Nevis falls under this catogary of the top 10 Fattest country in the world that fall under the UN. They stated that SKN is number 8 in the ratings.

Health, Local news, News

NIA seeking to bring water situation to speedy state of normalcy

http://www.nia.gov.kn/index.php/news-4/news-articles-3/3018-nia-seeking-to-bring-water-situation-to-speedy-state-of-normalcy #

Published 12 April 2017

Hon. Troy Liburd, Junior Minister in the Ministry responsible for Public Utilities on NevisNIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (APRIL 11, 2017) — The Nevis Island Administration is taking the matter of persistent water disruptions seriously and is seeking to bring the situation to a speedy state of normalcy.

Hon. Troy Liburd, Junior Minister in the Ministry responsible for Public Utilities gave the assurance on April 11, 2017, when he spoke to the Department of Information. He said they have been in constant contact with Bedrock Exploration and Development Technologies (BEAD) and are working to remedy the situation which has affected consumers on the island since last year September.

“This situation with the water has been the single highest priority for the Ministry and it is a very high priority for the government. It is not something that we are taking lightly.

“Water, of course, is the most basic thing. We need water for hygiene, we can’t live without water, so it is something that we are taking very, very seriously… We have been working with the company BEAD. They are the ones who operate the well…up to this morning, I spoke with the Chief Executive Officer of BEAD and he is assuring me that we are going to have a solution to that problem shortly,” he said.

The problems stemmed from a failed pump at the Maddens Heights pumping station owned by BEAD. They had been contracted by the NIA in the past to provide a certain quantity of water. The pump which is one of two owned by the company, generates the largest amount of water on the island at 360 imperial gallons per minute.

The well is more than 400 feet below ground and Mr. Liburd said the Ministry has also been looking into longer term solutions to remedy the situation. He expressed hope that they would be expedited and implemented but for the time being they continue to work with BEAD.

Apart from the failed pump, Mr. Liburd spoke of other issues which he said compounded the water disruptions.

“The Water Department is having to deal with the fact that they have lost a significant amount of supply.

“We are dealing with the fact that it is the dry season. We have had to deal with the fact that for significant stretches, the Four Seasons has been full and have been pulling quite a bit of water,” he said.

As a result, the Department has introduced a ration and rotation system. The water supply is turned off from 10 p.m. till 4 a.m.in certain strategic areas to allow the reservoirs to accumulate water. That way water is available in the mornings.

He used the opportunity to applaud the Nevis Water Department for its sterling efforts during the water challenges.

“The Water Department have been doing a tremendous job. These guys are out whole day and sometimes they are out all night… but this is our top priority and so whatever is to be done will be done,” he said.

Business, Health

Trump Refuses Funding to UN Agency that Helps Caribbean

Published 11 April 2017

WASHINGTON, United States, Monday April 10, 2017 – United States President Donald Trump is pulling his country’s funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an agency that assists 22 Caribbean countries in their efforts to tackle teen pregnancies and other reproductive health issues.

The US State Department has announced that it will not forward congressionally-approved uS$32.5 million to the UNFPA because of its partnership with a Chinese government programme that includes forced abortions and sterilizations.

“While there is no evidence that UNFPA directly engages in coercive abortions or involuntary sterilizations in China, the agency continues to partner with [China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission] on family planning, and thus can be found to support, or participate in the management of China’s coercive policies,” it said.

But the UNFPA has insisted that it does no such thing. It said the decision to deny funding for its life-saving work is based on the erroneous claim that UNFPA “supports, or participates in the management of, a programme of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization” in China.

“UNFPA refutes this claim, as all of its work promotes the human rights of individuals and couples to make their own decisions, free of coercion or discrimination. Indeed, United Nations Member States have long described UNFPA’s work in China as a force for good,” it said.

It noted that the support from the US in previous years has saved tens of thousands of mothers from preventable deaths and disabilities, and helped UNFPA combat gender-based violence and reduce the scourge of maternal deaths.

UNFPA works in more than 150 countries and territories. Those include the Caribbean nations of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Sint Maarten, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos Islands.

In those countries, UNFPA works to improve the reproductive health of the most vulnerable, including responding to the high numbers of unintended pregnancies and gaps in maternal health.

Family planning associations and similar agencies in the region benefit from the work of the UNFPA.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has predicted the US funding loss “could have devastating effects on the health of vulnerable women and girls and their families around the world”.

Health

Promising Zika Vaccine Moves To Next Phase Of Human Trials

Published 11 April 2017

WASHINGTON DC, USA, Monday April 10, 2017 – With projections putting the regional cost of the ongoing spread of the Zika virus at billions of dollars, the news that we are one step closer to a vaccine against the mosquito-borne disease is timely.

On Friday, Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said that the DNA vaccine candidate developed by scientists at NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center has been successful in both animal trials and the first human trial.

Following this success, the agency, which is part of the US National Institutes of Health, has moved into the next stage of testing.

Volunteers have been signing up at clinics across the Americas to participate in the tests which are being carried out at 11 sites including those in Puerto Rico, Brazil, Mexico and Miami.

This leg of the trial will involve 90 healthy adults divided into groups who will get different doses of the vaccine.

The next step, starting mid-year, will see researchers conducting a randomized control trial in 2,400 adults and adolescents who have not been infected with the virus but who live in areas where it has been detected.

The vaccine will not be tested in pregnant women, but it will be tested in women of child-bearing age. Some of the volunteers will be given a placebo.

The vaccine could be moved to the next phase by the end of the year if all goes according to plan.

The US$100 million trial is fully funded through this phase, but it is not yet clear whether funding is available for the next phase.

The Trump administration has proposed an 18 percent cut to the institutes’ budget, but it is not known what would be lost if the cuts get through Congress unchanged.

Fauci insisted that the third phase of the trial is “a very high priority for us, and we will keep this as one of our higher priorities.”

Noting that Zika will probably not go away any time soon, Fauci said that one of his goals is to develop a vaccine to keep children safe so when people of that generation have children of their own, they will not pass the virus along during pregnancy.

There is evidence of mosquito-transmitted Zika in at least 84 countries, meaning there are thousands of foetuses at risk for birth defects if their mothers become infected.

Birth defects linked to the virus include microcephaly, in which the head and brain don’t develop properly; vision and hearing defects; and learning disabilities.

People of any age who are infected with Zika can experience heart problems. The viral infection can also trigger Guillain-Barré, a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks nerves, leading to potential paralysis and even death.

Scientists around the world are racing to create viable versions of a Zika vaccine.