Trinis cop CARICOM science award

Two Trinis have copped the prestigious Caricom Science Award for 2017 during a grand ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Ballroom in Port of Spain on Sunday night.

The two are Dalip Ragoobirsingh, a professor of Medical Biochemistry and Diabetology and Director of Education Programme at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, UWI, Mona Campus in Jamaica and Samuel S Ramsewak, a professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and former Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at UWI.

Ramsewak and his team started the first successful IVF in the English-speaking Caribbean and were the first to produce a healthy live-born IVF baby in 1997.

The two were recognised for the roles they played in science and improving the lives of others.

Ramsewak made it his life’s work to help women with infertility, women who dreamt of holding a baby in their arms. He pioneered the use of advanced fertility treatments and specialised fertility surgery. Some of the major factors that made a woman unable to become pregnant were pelvic inflammatory disease, endometriosis, ectopic (tubal) pregnancy or cervical mucus which prevented the sperm from reaching the egg.

However, most interestingly, Ragoobirsingh questioned the use of “bush medicine” among diabetes patients. He said the use bush tea was widely used by patients with diabetes and while there were some advantages, he noted that if there was no scientific proof of its positive results, doctors should be discouraged and cautioned against its use.

Ragoobirsingh said the use of bush tea was widely used, but patients needed to monitor how much they took as there may be harmful substances and reactions between herbs and prescribed medications.