Health Life in Suriname

Oehlers, G.P.; Lichtveld, Maureen Y.; Brewster, Lizzy M.; Algoe, M.; Irving, Euridice R.

doi:10.4324/9781315271989-6

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Around 40% of the population of Suriname lives in the Netherlands, where they face major inequities in health compared to white Dutch (Fernald et al, 2016;Snijder et al, 2017;Brewster, 2019;Diemer et al, 2020;Brewster, 2020;Kallianidis et al, 2022). Centuries of enslavement of African ancestry persons, as well as decades of indentured labour of Asian ancestry persons, still seem to resonate in the health of these population groups today (Stedman, 1796;Teenstra, 1842;de Kom, 1934;Davis, 2011;Oehlers et al, 2016;Schokkenbroek and van den Broeke, 2022). Surinamese persons have a lower life expectancy than European Dutch whether living in Suriname or in the Netherlands (Central Bureau of Statistics, www.cbs.nl; The World Bank, n.d.; Brewster, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The socio-colonial history of Surinamese surnames applied to a validated surname list to identify ancestry in health research

Brewster,

Ishwardat,

Damsteegt

et al. 2024

J. Biosoc. Sci.

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Around half of the population of Suriname, who are mainly of African and South Asian descent, migrated to the Netherlands at the end of the previous century, where they face higher perinatal and maternal mortality and up to 5 years lower life expectancy than European-Dutch. Analyses by ancestry are needed to address these inequalities, but the law prohibits registration by ancestry. Therefore, a list of Surinamese surnames was compiled and validated to identify the largest groups, African-Surinamese or South Asian-Surinamese ancestry in health research. A complete database of Surinamese surnames was provided by the National Population Registry of Suriname. Surname recognition by researchers of Surinamese ancestry was used. Disagreement was resolved using historical registers and through discussion. The list was further validated against contemporary lists of Surinamese surnames with self-defined ancestry, obtained during population and clinical studies in Suriname and the Netherlands. All 71,529 Surinamese surnames were encoded, as African-Surinamese (34%), South Asian-Surinamese (18%), Brazilian or other Iberian (17%), Indonesian-Surinamese (13%), Chinese-Surinamese (5%), First Nation (2%), and other (10%). Compared to self-defined ancestry, South Asian-Surinamese surname coding had 100% sensitivity, 99.8% specificity, and 99.9% accuracy. For African-Surinamese, who may have Dutch surnames, these values depended on geocoding. With a known Surinamese origin, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were, respectively, 97.3%, 100%, and 98.6%, but without this information, there was interference of African-Surinamese with European-Dutch surnames in the Dutch validation sample. In conclusion, the Surinamese Surname List has a high accuracy in identifying persons of Surinamese ancestry. This quick, inexpensive, and nonintrusive method, which is unaffected by response bias, might be a valuable tool in public health research to help address the profound health disparities by ancestry.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The socio-colonial history of Surinamese surnames applied to a validated surname list to identify ancestry in health research

Brewster,

Ishwardat,

Damsteegt

et al. 2024

J. Biosoc. Sci.

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“…Like most other South American and Caribbean countries [123], Suriname can be characterized as a demographically transitioning country with declining mortality and infertility rates as well as a growing and aging population [124,125]. These changes are for an important part attributable to considerable progress in health care, nutrition, sanitation, and drinking water quality; the eradication of various infectious diseases including malaria; as well as improvements in average living and working conditions, education, and income [124,125]. The result was a decline of the death rate from 24 per 1000 in 1923 to 8 per 1000 in 2017 and the attainment of an average life expectancy of 72 years in 2019 [126].…”

Section: Health and Health Care In Surinamementioning

confidence: 99%

Traditional Plant-Based Treatments of Fungal Infections in the Republic of Suriname (South America): Phytochemical and Pharmacological Rationales

Mans¹

2022

Traditional Plant-Based Forms of Treatment of Fungal Infections in Suriname - Phytochemical and Pharmacological Rationale

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Fungi are unicellular or multicellular thick-walled eukaryotic organisms that are not capable of photosynthesis and are placed in a biological kingdom of their own. They are ubiquitous in our environment, and include tens of thousands, perhaps even millions of species of yeasts, rusts, smuts, mildews, molds, and mushrooms. Together with bacteria, fungi are the principal decomposers of plant materials such as cellulose and lignin, fulfilling vital ecological functions in all terrestrial habitats. Some species of fungi are also of major importance in households (for instance, as foods such as edible mushrooms), medicine (for instance, as producers of antibiotics such as penicillin), and industry (for instance, for making bread, wine, and cheese). About 300 fungal species cause infections in humans, varying from relatively harmless skin complaints such as pityriasis versicolor to potentially life-threatening systemic syndromes such as candidiasis. Fortunately, a broad armamentarium of efficacious antifungal drugs has been developed, ranging from topical nystatin to parenteral amphotericin B. In addition, most, if not all traditional medical systems throughout the world have identified a large assortment of plant-based remedies for treating these infections. This also holds true for the multi-ethnic and multicultural Republic of Suriname (South America), where plant-based traditional medicines are abundantly used, either alone or in conjunction with allopathic medications. This monograph extensively addresses nine plants that are traditionally used for treating fungal infections in Suriname, and explains the phytochemical and pharmacological rationales for these applications. These sections are preceded by some general observations about the Fungal Kingdom; a few words about the characteristics of fungi, their taxonomy, and their significance to humans; information about fungal infections as well as the available forms of treatment; and some details about Suriname including health aspects, the health care structure, and the main fungal infections in the country. The monograph is concluded with an evaluation of the status of the Surinamese herbal antifungal substances and the previsions of developing them into mainstream antifungal formulations.

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Anticancer Activity of Uncommon Medicinal Plants from the Republic of Suriname: Traditional Claims, Preclinical Findings, and Potential Clinical Applicability against Cancer

Mans¹,

Irving²

2019

Pharmacognosy - Medicinal Plants

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Despite much progress in our understanding of the essence of cancer, remarkable advances in methods for early diagnosis, the expanding array of antineoplastic drugs and treatment modalities, as well as important refinements in their use, this disease is among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in many parts of the world. In fact, the next decade is anticipated to bring over 20 million new cases per year globally, about half of whom will die from their disease. This indicates a need for better strategies to deal with cancer. One way to go forward is to draw lessons from ancient ethnopharmacological wisdom and to evaluate the plant biodiversity for compounds with potential antineoplastic activity. This approach has already yielded many breakthrough cytotoxic drugs such as vincristine, etoposide, paclitaxel, and irinotecan. The Republic of Suriname (South America), renowned for its pristine and highly biodiverse rain forests as well as its ethnic, cultural, and ethnopharmacological diversity, could also contribute to these developments. This chapter addresses the cancer problem throughout the world and in Suriname, extensively deals with nine plants used for treating cancer in the country, and concludes with their prospects in anticancer drug discovery and development programs.

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Health Life in Suriname

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

The socio-colonial history of Surinamese surnames applied to a validated surname list to identify ancestry in health research

The socio-colonial history of Surinamese surnames applied to a validated surname list to identify ancestry in health research

Traditional Plant-Based Treatments of Fungal Infections in the Republic of Suriname (South America): Phytochemical and Pharmacological Rationales

Anticancer Activity of Uncommon Medicinal Plants from the Republic of Suriname: Traditional Claims, Preclinical Findings, and Potential Clinical Applicability against Cancer

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