Cancer Survivors in Saint Lucia Deeply Value Social Support: Considerations for Cancer Control in Under-Resourced Communities.

Understanding the views of cancer survivors on their experience is important for informing community-based interventions. We studied, for the first time, the views of cancer survivors residing in Saint Lucia on their overall care experience. We used interview data from a cohort of adult cancer survivors from Saint Lucia between 2019 and 2020. We performed a thematic analysis to derive themes from codes. Forty-four survivors provided responses to at least one of the three questions. The majority of survivors were black, female and diagnosed with breast cancer. Survivors were interviewed on average five years after diagnosis. Four common themes emerged; "Availability of support groups", "Importance of support from family and friends", "Access to finances" and "Health education and patient navigation". Travel overseas for health services was common among survivors. Survivors expressed emotional distress during travel due to isolation from family and local providers. This is typical among island populations and is distinct from existing patient frameworks. Survivors also suggested that networking amongst providers and interventions assisted families of cancer survivors. Although tertiary care services are limited, we showed that survivors deeply value and depend on their inter-personal relationships during care. Interventions aimed at strengthening the inter-personal environment of survivors are warranted.

Infodemia en tiempos de COVID-19

[Extracto]. El 15 de febrero de 2020, durante la Conferencia sobre Seguridad en Múnich, el director de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), el Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, indicó que a la lucha contra la epidemia por la COVID-19 se le sumaba la lucha contra la “infodemia”, dando así inicio a una serie de acciones desde la OMS y otras organizaciones para enfrentar este desafío. Esta situación no es nueva, ya que casos similares han sucedido durante otras emergencias sanitarias, pero nunca antes con la magnitud actual, producto del aumento del uso de las aplicaciones digitales. En la era de la interdependencia digital, este fenómeno se amplifica debido a la convergencia del aumento en el acceso a los dispositivos móviles, el acceso a Internet y el uso de las redes sociales, que se propagan cada vez más lejos y más rápido, como un virus. [...]

The COVID-19 Infodemic

[Extract]. On 15 February 2020, during the Munich Security Conference, the Director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated that the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by a fight against an “infodemic”, leading to a series of initiatives by the WHO and other organizations to face this challenge. This situation is not new: others have occurred during other health emergencies, but never one of the current magnitude, resulting from the increased use of digital applications. In the age of digital interdependence, this phenomenon is amplified by the convergence of increased access to mobile devices, internet access, and the use of social networks, which are spreading it like a virus, further and faster than ever before. [...]

Difficulties in Accessing Cancer Care in a Small Island State: A Community-Based Pilot Study of Cancer Survivors in Saint Lucia.

Developing robust systems for cancer care delivery is essential to reduce the high cancer mortality in small island developing states (SIDS). Indigenous data are scarce, but community-based cancer research can inform care in SIDS where formal research capacity is lacking, and we describe the experiences of cancer survivors in Saint Lucia in accessing health services. Purposive and snowball sampling was used to constitute a sample of survivors for interviews. Subjects were interviewed with a questionnaire regarding socio-demographics, clinical characteristics, health services accessed (physicians, tests, treatment), and personal appraisal of experience. We recruited 50 survivors (13 men, 37 women). Only 52% of first presentations were with general practitioners. The mean turnaround for biopsy results in Saint Lucia was three times longer than overseas (p = 0.0013). Approximately half of survivors commenced treatment more than one month following diagnosis (median of 32 days, IQR 19-86 days), and 56% of survivors traveled out-of-country for treatment. Most survivors (60%) paid for care with family/friends support, followed by savings and medical insurance (38% each). In conclusion, cancer survivors in Saint Lucia are faced with complex circumstances, including access-to-care and health consequences. This study can guide future research, and possibly guide practice improvements in the near term.