PAHO/WHO wishes to respond to the article Paho: Ziekenhuis Wanica niet geschikt voor Covid-19 published by the Suriname U-News (SUN) on March 14, 2020 and to indicate that this is not an official statement of PAHO. The use of the old version of our logo in connection with this message was also unauthorized. As such PAHO disassociates itself from this article. The opportunity is also taken to clarify that the Hospital Readiness Assessments conducted at all hospitals in Suriname over the period February 21-March 5, 2020 was done jointly with the full cooperation of the hospital management and medical teams. This exercise was done to discuss with medical, administrative, lab and management teams their assessment of the current state of their facilities to respond to an emergency and to jointly rate their readiness.

The results of these assessments were shared with all Hospital Medical Directors with the aim of providing guidance on areas where there is need for improvement in terms of overall preparedness. These assessments do not reflect a hospital audit and are a means of guiding hospital teams on areas for which greater focus should be placed in order to be prepared to respond. Preparedness at the facility level is a continuous process since the nature of the emergency will require varying responses PAHO/WHO has been supporting the Ministry of Health with the preparation of communication materials for the public, health workers, and other sectors to take preventive measures; capacity building for diagnosis and for health workers in infection prevention and control, risk communication and pandemic preparedness; and institutional strengthening through the provision of guidelines, tools and supplies to laboratories and health facilities. PAHO continues to provide support to Suriname’s emergency preparedness and response to the current COVID-19 pandemic…[+]

A rising star of the Democratic party has said he will enter a rehabilitation centre following news that police found him heavily intoxicated in a hotel. Andrew Gillum, a former Florida mayor turned political commentator, said he would step down from public roles after he was found in a Miami hotel room with another man believed to be overdosing on crystal meth.

Mr Gillum, 40, apologised and said the episode was “a wake-up call” to seek help. He had been struggling with alcohol abuse since becoming depressed after narrowly losing the 2018 Florida governors race, he said. “Since my race for governor ended, I fell into a depression that has led to alcohol abuse. I witnessed my father suffer from alcoholism and I know the damaging effects it can have when untreated,” Mr Gillum said. “I also know that alcoholism is often a symptom of deeper struggles. I am committed to doing the personal work to heal fully and show up in the world as a more complete person.“(NU)…[+]

A French priest has been jailed for five years for sexually abusing dozens of children in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. Bernard Preynat, 74, admitted abusing boy scouts while a scout leader in Lyon. During his trial, he had told the court he had not understood how serious or grave his crimes were.

“It took me time to learn it was wrong and condemned given the age of the children,” he said in January. Preynat assaulted at least 80 young boys between the ages of seven and 15. Ten of his victims testified at the four-day trial. The abuse took place between 1971 and 1991.

Prosecutors sought an eight-year jail term, and accused Preynat of “shattering” his victims’ lives. Last July, Mr Preynat was defrocked – stripped of his clerical status – after a church tribunal ruled he had committed “criminal acts of sexual character against minors under [the age of] 16”. Representatives of victims also accused Preynat’s superior, Philippe Barbarin, of covering up the abuse. Mr Barbarin, who became archibishop of Lyon in 2002, was originally handed a six-month suspended sentence in March 2019 for not reporting Preynat’s crimes, but this conviction was overturned by an appeals court in January. At the time his lawyer hailed the verdict, saying the court had judged “the cardinal never intended to obstruct justice”.(BBC)…[+]