In my practice, thankfully there are no cases to date but our Health Facility where I work is on the alert, especially since there is a fair amount of traffic into and out of the building.
An Infection Control Officer has been employed to vet each and every person that enters the building and information is kept using forms created by the Ministry of Health/Public Health Dept. Everyone is mandated to follow the hygiene protocols laid down by PAHO and the Ministry of Health and it seems that all have been compliant. All staff in the building, especially the cleaners, have been alerted and informed in continuing workshops and newsletter updates and we hope to be able to contain the epidemic at least in our own small zones. We are also lucky in that we have an accredited Laboratory on site.
In Trinidad & Tobago however, we have in the past week registered three deaths due to confirmed InfluenzaA-H1N1 and more are in ICU - mostly in South Trinidad. Sadly, one of the deaths is a longstanding friend of mine Ms. Astra DaCosta- a "woman of substance", the first female to be elected a Regional District Governor in the Rotary Club and an old benefactor of CCFP.
She was a founder of AMPLE Advertising Company and when I approached her in 1990 for help relative to assisting CCFP in becoming a voice for primarycare in the region, she sent her senior advertising executive to me and promised to give us the Company's best advice.
They developed Brochures for us free of cost and these were used as our first contact with the commercial world. BWIA, Ciba-Geigy, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, GSK, Burroughs-Wellcome, Upjohn Pharmaceuticals amongst others became our first Corporate Members .
BWIA sponsored free tickets for myself and Dr. Geoffrey Frankson to attend our first CCFP Conference and Strategic Planning Workshop convened by Dr. Winsome Segree-MacKay in Kingston, Jamaica which gave rise to our first Policy Document "The Way Forward" published in January 1991.
I still have originals of those Brochures in our Archives.
We will miss Astra .
CCFP sends condolences to her family on her untimely passing.
H1N1 pandemic
In my practice, thankfully there are no cases to date but our Health Facility where I work is on the alert, especially since there is a fair amount of traffic into and out of the building.
An Infection Control Officer has been employed to vet each and every person that enters the building and information is kept using forms created by the Ministry of Health/Public Health Dept. Everyone is mandated to follow the hygiene protocols laid down by PAHO and the Ministry of Health and it seems that all have been compliant. All staff in the building, especially the cleaners, have been alerted and informed in continuing workshops and newsletter updates and we hope to be able to contain the epidemic at least in our own small zones. We are also lucky in that we have an accredited Laboratory on site.
In Trinidad & Tobago however, we have in the past week registered three deaths due to confirmed InfluenzaA-H1N1 and more are in ICU - mostly in South Trinidad. Sadly, one of the deaths is a longstanding friend of mine Ms. Astra DaCosta- a "woman of substance", the first female to be elected a Regional District Governor in the Rotary Club and an old benefactor of CCFP.
She was a founder of AMPLE Advertising Company and when I approached her in 1990 for help relative to assisting CCFP in becoming a voice for primarycare in the region, she sent her senior advertising executive to me and promised to give us the Company's best advice.
They developed Brochures for us free of cost and these were used as our first contact with the commercial world. BWIA, Ciba-Geigy, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, GSK, Burroughs-Wellcome, Upjohn Pharmaceuticals amongst others became our first Corporate Members .
BWIA sponsored free tickets for myself and Dr. Geoffrey Frankson to attend our first CCFP Conference and Strategic Planning Workshop convened by Dr. Winsome Segree-MacKay in Kingston, Jamaica which gave rise to our first Policy Document "The Way Forward" published in January 1991.
I still have originals of those Brochures in our Archives.
We will miss Astra .
CCFP sends condolences to her family on her untimely passing.