Turks and Caicos, September 12, 2024 – The Ministry of Health and Human Services (MoHHS) reports an outbreak of gastroenteritis affecting the island of Grand Turk. Gastroenteritis (GE), which causes diarrhoea and or vomiting,  can be triggered by viral or bacterial infections resulting in inflammation of the stomach and intestines. These infections can spread easily from person to person by direct contact, contact with contaminated food or water, or contact with contaminated surfaces/objects. Some people (usually the very young or elderly) are very vulnerable and may require hospital admission due to dehydration. It is, therefore, essential to drink plenty of fluids during the illness to avoid dehydration.

The public health team has been actively responding since initial reports and, to date, has done a number of inspections and provided advice. A number of school-aged children from various schools, along with their close contacts have been affected. The Ministry of Education has been apprised of the situation, and the MoHHS is working closely with its education partners to mitigate further spread.

Gastroenteritis can commonly occur in school and nursery settings and may be caused by viruses such as norovirus or, more rarely, by food poisoning. Symptoms commonly include:

• vomiting (often sudden in onset)
• diarrhoea
• both diarrhoea and vomiting
• tiredness
• fever
• nausea (feeling sick)
• aching muscles
• stomach pain
• headache

 Symptoms may begin one to two days after infection and typically resolve in one to three days.

 Recommendations:

1. Practising proper hand hygiene at all timesis essential to prevent the spread of GE and other communicable diseases.

Children should be supervised and encouraged to wash their hands before eating, drinking, and after using the toilet.

Hand washing with liquid soap and warm water should be done frequently for at least 20 seconds.

Paper towels should be used for drying hands, and a wastepaper bin should be provided for disposal.

Persons looking after ill loved ones should pay particular attention to proper hand hygiene to prevent getting sick.

Alcohol gel can be used in addition to soap and water.

2. Handle and prepare food safely. Before preparing and eating your food:

Carefully wash fruits and vegetables well.

Clean and sanitise kitchen utensils, cutting boards, counters, and surfaces routinely.

3. Practice proper cleaning and disinfection, particularly of frequently touched surfaces.

Surfaces and touch points (taps, toilet flush handles, door handles, light switches) should be cleaned and disinfected with a bleach-based cleaner.

Use detergents and bleach solutions in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions to clean these surfaces regularly.

5. If you or your child is sick, you should not go to school/work and not return until at least 48 hours after the symptoms have resolved without medication.
6. Ensure that you or your child is properly hydrated.Avoid dehydration by offering an oral rehydration solution gradually.
7. Seek medical attentionif your child:

• Becomes unusually drowsy
• Vomits frequently or vomits blood
• Has bloody diarrhoea
• Shows signs of dehydration, such as dry mouth and skin, marked thirst, sunken eyes, or crying without tears. In an infant, be alert to the soft spot on the top of the head becoming sunken and to diapers that remain dry for more than three hours
• Is an infant and has a fever
• Is older than three months of age and has a fever of 102 Fahrenheit (39 degrees Celsius) or more

The Ministry of Health and Human Services will continue heightened surveillance for gastroenteritis and take necessary actions to mitigate against further cases.

For additional information, please call 649-338-5469 or visit the Ministry of Health and Human Services Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tciministryofhealth/.

By ANDREW COAKLEY

Bahamas Information Services

FREEPORT, Grand Bahama, The Bahamas — The Government of The Bahamas is committed to improving health care facilities throughout The Bahamas; and Minister of Health and Wellness, the Hon. Dr. Michael Darville is ensuring that health care facilities in the Northern Bahamas get the upgrades necessary to take health care to the next level.

Over the past few weeks Dr. Darville, along with Ministry of Health officials have been on a tour of clinics and hospitals throughout the country assessing those facilities, their staff complements, their needs and making recommendations for any required upgrades and improvements.

Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Hon. Philip Davis accompanied Dr. Darville on some of those site tours.  Most recently the Prime Minister and Dr. Darville toured health care facilities in the Northern Bahamas, namely Abaco, Grand Bahama, Bimini and the Berry Islands.

The Prime Minister was able to witness firsthand a monumental achievement in the life of the clinic in Marsh Harbor, Abaco, when the surgical theatre was used for the first time.

“It was an historic moment for this clinic,” said Dr. Darville, during the tour of the Marsh Harbor clinic. “Through a philanthropic effort, they are now doing cataract surgery here in Abaco. The people in Abaco are so grateful for this milestone. What some people may not know is that the Abaco clinic is a sister clinic of the one in Exuma.  So, what you see in Abaco is pretty much the same as what you would see in Exuma.”

Prime Minister Davis got an opportunity to tour the operating theatre in the clinic on Friday, August 9, 2024.  He noted that with the help of Liquid Legacy and the World Cataract Foundation, the government was able to offer surgeries, eye examinations and screenings, free to Abaco residents.

Dr. Darville thanked the staff at the Marsh Harbor clinic for the hard work they’ve put in to advance the procedures available at the clinic.  He confirmed that the Ministry of Health and Wellness is deep into its project to renovate the 41 clinics throughout the Family Islands. The Health Minister has visited most of those clinics where he received updates on the progress of the works being carried out thus far.

On Saturday, August 10, 2024, Prime Minister Davis, Dr. Darville, Minister for Grand Bahama, the Hon. Ginger Moxey and Ministry of Health officials toured the construction site of the $210 million Freeport Health campus, located off East Sunrise Highway.

The completion of the Freeport Health Campus, according to Minister Darville, will unify the Rand Memorial Hospital with other medical facilities in the Northern Bahamas, including clinics in Abaco, Bimini and the Berry Islands.

“A lot of people don’t know, but the Rand Memorial Hospital is not classified as a full hospital,” explained Dr. Darville. “There are Memorandums of understanding with some sub-specialties that are tied in with the Princess Margaret Hospital. With this particular facility, we intend to resolve that and begin to open up this new Northern health facility to the Northern region, inclusive of Abaco, Bimini and the Berry Islands.”

The Davis Administration broke ground for the Health Clinic in May of 2023. Since then, steady progress in the construction of the multi-faceted facility has been taking place. During the tour of the work in progress, Prime Minister Davis noted that the facility will take a more holistic approach to advanced health care in Grand Bahama and the Northern Bahamas.

The health campus facility will be built over three phases.

Phase one will consist of a nearly 60,000 square foot clinic.

Phase two will include an inpatient surgical suite urgent care facility.

Phase three will involve the construction of an acute care hospital with 126 inpatient beds. One of the most important components of the new facility will be the opening of an oncology center, which will give Grand Bahama cancer patients the option of remaining on island during cancer treatments.
The first phase is expected to be completed by the middle of 2025.

“We intend to have this facility also serve as a research hub for international researchers in matters of new innovations in medicine, including regenerative medicine and longevity,” said Prime Minister Philip Davis, during the tour of the construction works.

“We have the doctor’s university just down the street that will hopefully be integrated in what we’re doing here.”

It was during the initial groundbreaking that Minister Darville pointed out that drawings had been made for nine new clinics throughout the Family Islands. He also noted that 41 clinics in the country were set to undergo renovations.

PHOTO CAPTION

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE ON FREEPORT HEALTH CAMPUS – Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis (center), along with Minister of Health and Wellness, the Hon. Dr. Michael Darville (right) and Minister for Grand Bahama, the Hon. Ginger Moxey (left), is given an update on the construction of the new Freeport Health Campus on Saturday, August 10, 2024. The first phase of the $210 million multi-faceted project is expected to be completed by mid 2025.   (BIS Photo)

Garfield Ekon

Staff Writer

Africa, September 4, 2024 – The first batch of Mpox vaccines have finally arrived on the African continent this week; weeks after they had been made available in other parts of the world and in quantities far below what is needed in order to tackle the dangerous new variant of the virus.

Vaccines have already been made available in more than 70 countries outside Africa and the failure to provide the continent with anti-Mpox shots until now displays worrying problems in the way international agencies deal with global health emergencies, medical officials and scientists warned last week.

The 10,000 shots are donated by the United States (US), and follows the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring, earlier this month, urging that the process needed to give African countries easy access to large quantities of vaccines via international agencies – despite the fact that the disease has afflicted people there for decades.

On Tuesday September 3, the UN confirmed that the UAE had dispatched several aircraft carrying Mpox vaccines to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon.

Mpox is a potentially deadly infection that causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions, and spreads through close physical contact. It was declared a global health emergency by the WHO on 14 August after the new variant, known as clade Ib, began to spread from the Democratic Republic of the Congo into neighbouring African countries.

The long wait for WHO approval for international agencies to buy and distribute the vaccines has forced individual African governments and the continent’s public health agency – the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) – to instead request donations of shots from rich countries.

Helen Rees, a member of the Africa CDC’s Mpox emergency committee, and Executive Director of the Wits RHI Research Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa, said it was “really outrageous” that, after Africa struggled to access vaccines in the Covid pandemic, the continent had once again been left behind.

The Africa CDC has said that 10 million doses may be needed across the continent to cope with the outbreak. The WHO asked vaccine manufacturers only this month to submit the information needed for the Mpox shots to receive an emergency licence – the WHO’s accelerated approval for medical products. It urged countries to donate shots until the process was completed in September.

Also, the WHO said it did not have the data it required to do a full review for approval of the vaccine, and an emergency licence process can be carried out only after a public health emergency of international concern has been declared.