Well-known Belizean Doctor Fernando Cuellar has been diagnosed with blood cancer. A statement from his family today said that the unfortunate discovery was made while Doctor Cuellar was in the process of seeking medical attention for a back fracture. He is currently in the U.S.A., receiving treatment. The family says that it has been a devastating blow to them and that his thoughts are with his family, patients, and the people of Belize. The release also notes that Doctor Cuellar longs for his return to his patients and the country he loves. The family is requesting privacy but asks for prayers at this time.
Category: Health
Autism Awareness Starts At Home
April second is internationally recognized as World Autism Awareness Day. A day meant to serve as a platform to foster appreciation for and honor individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder as well as bring awareness to some of the challenges people with autism and their families may face so that communities may extend acceptance and support for the individuals. News Five spoke with executive chair and founder of Autism Belize to learn more about the day’s significance. News Five’s Britney Gordon reports.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
Autism is a neurological and developmental condition related to brain development that impacts the way individuals perceive, socialize, and interact with others and their surroundings. Signs of autism can usually be observed in the early childhood years, with it affecting one in every fifty-eight children born worldwide, according to the CDC. Executive chair and founder of Autism Belize, Christy Castillo Almeida, explained their mission.
Christy Castillo Almeida, Executive Chair and Founder, Autism Belize
“Autism Beliefs started in 2020. We’re parents, we’re all volunteers, and we have four goals. We want to teach about autism, we want to promote awareness, we want to provide support for parents, and we want to show acceptance. So everything we do is about that. It’s all parent driven, and it’s about that support and creating that network for our families, and then educating Belize.”
Almeida said that Autism Belize was started in the midst of the COVID lockdown to spread the word about Autism Awareness Month and offer support to parents who were struggling to adequately support their children and their needs during the lockdown. It began with thirteen online sessions covering various autism-related therapies. She explained that Autism Belize is not meant to diagnose individuals; it is a community that helps others gain support, advice, and understanding.
“I’d never done a live before, but we were trying to get the word out there. And we had so many parents that came back to us like was coming in and saying, Oh my gosh, I thought it was alone. I don’t know where to go. I don’t know what to do. And so I NGO. It was definitely parent driven. It just people kept coming and we grew very rapidly, very fast during the COVID time when everybody was at home, struggling on how to deal with their children. And then coming out of COVID we had a lot of kids with developmental delays might not have been autism, but just because they were at home for those very instrumental years and not at preschool not getting that simulation. We had even more families coming and see. What can we do? And ever since then, we provide trainings every single month for parents.”
Christy Castillo Almeida
“It’s really to start to get the world talking. A lot of times in the past, a lot of people go, Oh my gosh, I don’t know where it’s all coming from. We didn’t hear about autism and now everybody has an autistic child. It really isn’t that a lot of it was we would keep them hidden. These were the kids that they pull out in infant two and keep at home because they figured they can never learn. Spoiler alert, they can always learn. And we kept it hidden. And what we’re trying to do is take these kids, these invisible children and bring them out in the spotlight and say, Hey world, it’s time for you to adjust to us. Let them come live in our dynamic, vivid world, and so it is about the conversation. So worldwide, buildings light up blue. We’re talking Empire State Building, the Opera Center the Taj Mahal, all around the world go blue. Because of Easter and how we go, we actually do the whole month. And what we ask is for people to go blue for the month and also to wear blue on Fridays.”
Christy Castillo Almeida
“We partnered with Special Olympics. So the walk run Special Olympics is coming out and they’re bringing all their people to come out and support as well. And then every year we partner with Belize City Council, and we go in the Friday before and we do multiple sessions like an hour. so much. Every hour they send in like fifteen people from traffic, from court, from all over. And then we do these sensitization talks all throughout the day. So the same talk over and over again to different people. special needs families. So not just autism. We invite families of similar merits and we’re inviting special Olympics. And we have an event just for them in the park in the mornings. Afterwards they have for the general population, but they do that for us. And so we’re always really grateful. So we have that sort of event where families can feel comfortable to bring their children.”
Britney Gordon for News Five.
Ten Years Later, KHMH Introduces New CT Scanner
The Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital recently received a new CT Scan machine after ten years without that critical service being offered at the facility. Now that it has the machine, K.H.M.H. is providing that service at a much lower cost than at the various private medical institutions, but it’s not without criticism. Earlier today, C.E.O. Chandra Cansino gave the media access to the diagnostic X-ray scanner and briefly discussed its acquisition.
Chandra Cansino, Chief Executive Officer, K.H.M.H.
“As you know, we have officially received and started to operate the new CT Scan machine and we are extremely elated, particularly from the perspective of the patient and the doctors, because we are now able to perform that level of service that we needed to do a long time ago. This is a big win for the patients and the staff because now the patients don’t need to go outside of the hospital to get tested and also the doctors now have an additional diagnostic tool that is at a very high level that would enable them to make better diagnosis, prescribe better treatment and we have better results.”
Reporter
“Can you talk about the cost of the new service to patients?”
Chandra Cansino
“The new service varies. I think if you’re ever, which I hope you will never, do a CT Scan, it varies from a simple CT to this machine can do some very high tech operations and so right now what we call a basic CT would be between three hundred and three hundred and fifty dollars, depending on where you are doing the CT. That’s without contrast, and then with contrast which is with a dye that enables the doctor to see a little bit more, would be between three hundred and fifty and four hundred dollars.”
K.H.M.H. Responds to Criticism Over New CT Scanner
During our time with her, Chief Executive Officer Chandra Cansino also responded to criticism about the acquisition of the machine, as well as its placement at the K.H.M.H., here in Belize City.
Isani Cayetano
“How do you respond to the comments that were made by another medical practitioner to another media house yesterday regarding the CT-Scan and its placement here at the KHMH?”
Chandra Cansino, C.E.O., K.H.M.H.
“For us, our perspective is from a public service perspective. Access to quality healthcare is actually a part of poverty alleviation and so why not? Why shouldn’t the regular, normal man and woman off the streets of Belize City have access to such a superior service. And so, maybe that’s a private sector perspective. From a public sector perspective, we are extremely happy that everybody in Belize will have access to these services at an extremely affordable price.”
Reporter
“Their argument was also that while this CT-Scan here, the other public hospitals don‘t have one and that those persons from Corozal, Toledo and Dangriga, they have to travel all the way here to be able to get this service, as opposed to getting a less expensive CT Scan and placing them in all of the public hospitals.
Chandra Cansino
“Well remember, Karl Heusner is the only tertiary institution in Belize and so we, our concern is the provision of care from the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Indeed, the ministry can explore options that were suggested but there are many things that go along with purchasing a CT.”
Kidney Association of Belize Invites Everyone to Get Tested
As today is internationally recognized as World Kidney Day, the Kidney Association of Belize is reminding you to take care of your kidneys. To ensure that Belizeans are taking preventative measures to combat kidney disease, the association will be holding its annual health fair, on March fifteenth in Belize City. There, visitors will have access to doctors and healthcare providers to conduct several checkups and tests for conditions that affect the kidney, free of cost. We spoke with former president of the association, Ruby Nicholas, for more information. News Five’s Britney Gordon reports.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
Diabetes and hypertension are two of the most common conditions that affect Belizeans, and both are leading causes of death in the country. As part of International Kidney Awareness Month and World Kidney Day, the Kidney Association of Belize is hosting its annual health fair in order to ensure that Belizeans are taking steps to ensure kidney health before it becomes too late.
Ruby Nicholas, Treasurer, Kidney Association of Belize
“Today is World Kidney Day and tomorrow we’re planning our health fair on March fifteenth. It will be at the Lions parking lot, KHMH, and there we will be allowing persons to come in and we’re inviting the entire public. Everything that we present there will be free of cost, and we want to, the public to become aware of their health status. We’ll be having their blood pressure check, their diabetes check your urinalysis check, and then those who are showing high readings or concerns in whatever the test may be showing, we will also be having them doing their blood tests, the kidney function blood tests.”
Ruby Nicholas says that this annual event is a crucial part of kidney care, as it allows for people to detect anomalies in their health and combat any underlying issues early on.
“We will be having doctors there, nurses, nutritionists, we will even invite for HIV rapid tests. and then as well as having invitation from BCVI to give appointments for them to check their eyes. So everything will be holistically being checked for the individual and that is going to be associated with the kidney area to see where your status is. Those who will be having issues with their health, we will try to advise them to do referral and for them to seek further attention. Our main focus will be on patients or persons who may be diabetic, hypertensive, even yourself you’re unaware of where you are with your health, we’re inviting you out there tomorrow.”
Doctor Natasha Gongora of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, explained the eight golden rules of kidney health.
Natasha Gongora, Internal Medicine & Nephrology Specialist , K.H.M.H.
“Eight golden rules to take care of your kidneys include one, keeping a fit and active life. Two, controlling your sugar levels. Controlling your blood pressure. Four, controlling a good weight. Having a good weight by eating healthy. Five, if you smoke, no smoking. Six, drink plenty of water. Seven, if you have pain, for example, no over the counter painkillers, they can cause more damage to your kidneys. And eight, most importantly, if you know you have diabetes, if you know you have high blood pressure or heart disease in your family, kidney stones, just get that check up. That’s the number one thing we want patients to do.”
The event will be held in the Lions parking lot near the K.H.M.H. and will occur between nine a.m. and four p.m. on March fifteenth.
“We know that kidney disease is on the rise. This is evidently shown by the amount of people. Who are calling and asking for assistance through the Kidney Association of Belize. We’re trying to ensure that educational awareness become an important aspect of the association to try to ring the alarm out there for people to know that this kidney disease is not slowing down.It’s, as a matter of fact, we are having too many people with dialysis, doing dialysis, too many people causing to pass away. because of the lack of funds. So prevention for us is an important aspect of it. And tomorrow will be a revelation of what it is to do a preventative care using it as a health fair.”
Britney Gordon for News Five.
Daughter Still In Dire Need Of Kidney Transplant
The month of March is globally recognized as International Women’s Month, but it is also the month of Kidney Awareness. During this time, various health organizations host campaigns to share information regarding kidney health and shed light on those suffering from various conditions that affect the kidney. Last year, we told you the story of Vicky Samos, a fourteen-year-old student battling Lupus and End Stage Renal Disease, hoping to get a kidney transplant soon. One year later, Vicky is still on dialysis and still holding out hope for that transplant. News Five’s Britney Gordon visited Vicky and her family today, for an update on her condition. Here’s that story.
Vicky Samos, Kidney Patient
“Well, there is some days I wake up not feeling good, like tired and without energy, but I try my best to stay strong.”
Britney Gordon, Reporting
It’s been one year since fifteen-year-old Vicky Samos started dialysis. According to the teenager, her body has been responding well to the treatment but there are still days when she feels tired and in pain. For the past two days, the second form student has had to miss classes due to her condition and rising blood pressure and throughout it all, her parents have been there to support her.
Diego Samos, Father of Patient
“I have been doing my best to get Vicky well. We’re aiming to get her a kidney transplant. She has been diagnosed with lupus, which is an autoimmune disease that attacks its own body. In her case, it attacked her, it attacked her, both of her kidneys. Yes and that eventually led to the kidney failure.”
Last year, her father, Diego Samos, said that he would be the one to donate a kidney to save his daughter’s life if the doctors found that he was a match. Luckily, they did.
Diego Samos
“We have made tremendous progress. We went to Merida last year in December. We went and we did a compatibility test, a cross match test, and I came out that I am a match for her. So we have been following up the kidney transplant protocol, which entails different doctors. We have seen the cardiologists, the dentists, different doctors, and all of them have cleared us. Just a couple of them we have to see but in other words, we are quite ready for a kidney transplant.”
Diego Samos
“It has never been done here in Belize but there is a team from Virginia that is willing to come to Belize to do the transplant. If we do have the facilities. However, we are still awaiting from the Ministry of Health and from the CEO of Karl Heusner to give us a letter of invitation so the team from Virginia could proceed. I guess because of legal issues and other stuff, you know, they need an official letter from Belize.”
Vicky’s mother, Yarheli, said that she’s taken on the role of a personal nurse for her daughter, delivering medication and caring for Vicky when she needs it.
Yarheli Samos, Mother of Patient
“Well, it’s a hard process, but we try every day to do well and good, I try to make she eat healthy. Her diet is the most important. And, yes, just keep her, make she be strong every day. Get up and go to school and give her the motivation.”
Kidney awareness month not only brings awareness to the patients, but also the families doing their work to support them as well. In this case, Vicky’s parents just want to see their daughter happy and healthy.
Diego Samos
“As a parent, it has a very tremendous impact I guess for both of us. It has changed our life completely. We have me personally, now I dedicate my time fully to my, especially to my daughter. And in making sure that she gets well, I make sure that I have the medication, even though it’s very costly. We still do manage to get the medication for her. And like I said, we are doing our best to get this transplant done. And but it’s very hard, but we have people that are assisting us. I don’t know, so we’re coping. And hoping that we get this kidney transplant done as soon as possible.”
Vicky Samos
“Have a normal life again, like before, go to school normal again, that’s the most Important thing. “I want to major in science in third form. “
Britney Gordon
“Why do you want to be a pediatrician?”
“Because I love children.”
As a preventative measure, Samos advises all parents to get their children tested early for these conditions even if they show no symptoms.
Diego Samos
“I would just like to tell the Belizean people to pay keen attention to their children, if you’re feeling ill, if you’re feeling bad, to make sure that they have a doctor check them. Also for all of us adults, children, everyone, we should be taking care of ourselves and if we do have any symptoms, to, to follow it up and not just let time go by because sometimes it’s late, sometimes you could catch things at an early stage.”
Britney Gordon for News Five.
Investigation Still Ongoing on Belize City Meningitis Case
At the end of January a child attending Holy Redeemer Primary School began exhibiting signs and symptoms of meningitis. The Ministry of Education took precautionary steps to protect the remainder of the students at the school. The child remains hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit at the K.H.M.H. and today, the Minister of Health and Wellness, Kevin Bernard told reporters that the matter is still under investigation.
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health & Wellness
“From what I understood from the report I got was that the child was being monitored. The last report I got from the CEO at KHMH, because the child was in the ICU, but was not in the ICU under any equipment or anything, but was just being monitored. I understand that at the time, the child was responsive on all of these things. I haven’t gotten a recent update, to be honest with you, so I don’t want to speak out of turn. In fact, I am here today and that’s one of the reasons why I’m here today because I’ll be meeting as well with the Central Health Region and with the CEO of KHMH so we can get an update on terms of what are the things that are happening with current occurrences.”
Bernard Says Free Vaccines Are Fit For Use
The United States government recently donated four thousand, eight hundred doses of Pfizer-BioNTech Bivalent vaccines to the Government of Belize. However, the Center for Disease Control stated on its website that these vaccines are no longer viable to be used as they target a strain of COVID no longer circulating. We asked Minister of Health Wellness Kevin Bernard about this donation.
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health & Wellness
“I don’t think the United States government would just or the notion is that they’re just dumping things that they don’t want on us. It is a proven fact that this vaccine has been used. What happened is there are several versions of vaccines that have been done. And if you notice, we only got a small quantity of the vaccine, twelve hundred doses of them. And we accept them because at the end of the day, it’s still being used on other parts of the world. It’s not something that was banned. As I mentioned, it’s the adult Pfizer vaccine, something that was produced, had gone to all its necessary requirements. I understand from what we are that this is safe for us to use. Now, we always will rely on the CDC and other FDA regulations. As far as we are concerned from the Ministry of Health and Wellness, when we got, received these vaccines, it was given the green light. We don’t accept a vaccine just because we want to accept vaccines. Trust me, there’s a lot of due diligence that is done before we even take anything from any country.”
Reporter
“It’s not that it’s expired or something’s wrong with it. It’s just that it’s not recommended because it does nothing against the potential strains that are out right now.”
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
“We have to look at the type of strains you have. And luckily for Belize, we have not had any major issue in terms of an influx of covid cases. It’s being managed. But as I said, we will continue to realize what we can and how we can and if down the road we are not going to use the vaccine and we’re not going to use the vaccine. These are donations that are given to us. Yes, we accepted these donations but the Ministry of Health and Wellness, as I said, would not have accepted these if it is not fully recommended. As you are saying, CDC mentioned, there are certain things that you may hear on the media or on social media that sometimes not necessarily all that, we have to be very conscious of a lot of fake news. And as I mentioned, we accepted those vaccines because it was genuine and vaccines that can still be utilized within the country.”
Belize’s First Health and Nutrition Expo
Healthy habits, healthy schools, healthy Belize”, that is the theme of the first Health and Nutrition expo held today the Belize Civic Center. The expo was held in order to encourage healthier habits and bring awareness to health concerns threatening the young population. Several primary and secondary schools attended the event earlier today, where they got to sample an array of nutritional foods, as well as learn about how to make small changes in their daily lives. News Five’s Britney Gordon stopped by to learn all about it. Here’s the story.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
Today, dozens of students got the opportunity to learn about fostering healthy habits at the first ever Health and Nutrition Expo at the Belize Civic Center. The event was hosted by the Ministry of Health and Wellness, in partnership with several NGOs and government agencies, including the Ministry of Education. At the event, students visited booths where representatives educated them on topics such as mental health, nutritional dietary options, skin care, and non-communicable diseases.
Robyn Daly-Faber, Technical Advisor for Nutrition, Ministry of Health and Wellness
“So we wanted to be able to share with those that are in the program and others as well, the impact, the importance of health and nutrition. We’re giving out posters, informational, flyers, contents. We’re also being able to teach some of the students some pointers about health and nutrition today. We have twenty-two booths. We also invited some of the beverage companies that are selling juices that are natural for them to also promote their healthy products. So that gives us about twenty-two and we expect about five hundred students varying from preschool, primary and secondary school to join us today.”
Minister of Health and Wellness, Kevin Bernard spoke on the importance of such an event.
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health & Wellness
“Today as you know the Ministry of Health and Wellness have launched the National Nutrition Policy last year. And as part of the commitment and to ensure that we move on with the policy, we have been able to team up with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Agriculture, in showing our commitment as a government and as ministries, that we are committed to ensuring that we can Push into Belize, especially in our schools at a very young age, the issue of being healthy habits so we can create healthy schools and the end result that we have a healthier Belize. As we have been saying for a long time, we have to address the issues of non communicable diseases that are affecting our society. In my message, I spoke about it briefly, diabetes, cancer and all these things that are prevailing in our country, we need to reduce that and the only way we can do if our people start to eat up healthy, start to build those healthy habits, and it has to start not only from the schools, but from home, as Minister Fonseca rightly mentioned. It starts at home, but we must ensure that it is incorporated in the school system and that’s one of the reasons why the Ministry of Education has also adapted the healthy eating habits within the school system. For us, it’s important that we bring together stakeholders from both the non-governmental organization, the government partners, international partners, and the private sector to come together to ensure that we continue to promote this initiative.”
According to Education Minster Francis Fonseca, this event is part of a larger initiative to educate students about personal health and encourage change within the community. The ministry has been working on several other projects that are set to be implemented soon.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
“I think we all know, in our own individual lives, we know how important health is, how important nutrition is to leading a healthy life. So I think for us at the Ministry of Education, what’s important is that. We have, in a sense, a captive audience. We have, as I said in my remarks. We have one hundred thousand students in our education system from preschool to university. And so we believe that represents a unique opportunity to really instill in our students these healthy habits which will ultimately lead to them leading healthy lives and Belize becoming a healthier country. So it’s, absolutely important at the Ministry of Education. We have focused on this in our new curriculum that we launched, the competency based curriculum health and nutrition and sports play an important part of that in that curriculum. We’ve also worked with the Ministry of Health to develop the National Nutrition Policy. And of course we’ve launched the National Healthy Start Feeding Program across the country, which is all about making sure that we’re providing nutritious meals to our students in their classrooms across the country. We have to start gradually, but I’m happy to report that we’re already in thirty-five primary schools. We’re already in nine high schools. Later this year, we’ll expand to twelve other high schools and I think six other primary schools. So it’s an exciting initiative. And the whole objective is about ensuring that we’re producing healthier citizens for Belize.”
“It’s a challenging issue because you know how addicted our people are to these sugary drinks and our students and young people in particular. But it’s something we feel very strongly about, so we’ve worked along with the Ministry of Health to pass that legislation about the banning of sugary drinks in our schools. We have to take a phased approach, obviously, a responsible approach so it’s being done in phases but I’m very glad with the initial results as we roll out that program. Already we’re seeing that, there’s so many good alternatives, coconut water, natural water, of course. So it’s, again, it’s a challenge. It’s an issue of changing habits and ensuring that our students understand and appreciate that it’s much better for you to drink some water or drink some coconut water than to drink a soda or a soft drink.”
Reporter
“When it comes to what the schools are allowed to sell, is it going to be made mandatory now?”
“Yes, that’s the whole idea. That, as I said, the whole policy is about banning these sugary drinks in our schools, on our school compounds. But it has to be done in a phased approach. So it’s not saying, okay, effective today. No, it’s being done in a phased, rolled out approach. And so far it’s been very successful. And we hope, as I said my, our goal really is that over a period of say a year and a half or two years that eventually we can have a complete ban of these sugary drinks on our school campuses.”
Britney Gordon for News Five.
New CT Scan Machines Are In The Country
The new CT Scan machines are officially in the country. Belizeans have been anticipating the arrival of the new equipment ever since it was announced that they would arrive in late January. While January may have passed without the arrival, the wait is finally over. Minister of Health and Wellness, Kevin Bernard brought us up to speed on its status today.
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health & Wellness
“The CT scan is in country. I know that the Fuji team, because it’s a Fuji brand. And as I had mentioned, it comes with warranty, it comes with maintenance, over a five year maintenance plan, supported by the Fuji company and they were in country last week, and I think they are still in country this week. And the installation process will commence. We are hoping that by the end of this month, we should have the installation completed, and it should be in operation in early March.”