Obscure Diseases – By Sharon N. Simon
Obscure Diseases Are Affecting
Medical professionals at Sir Lester Bird Medical Centre (SLBMC) are sounding the alarm about a troubling pattern in Antigua and Barbuda’s health data: residents of the twin-island nation are being diagnosed with multiple myeloma — a cancer of the blood — at a rate that significantly outpaces both regional and global averages.
Dr Aliena Beiba Omar Sol, a haematologist at the facility, confirmed that the country records approximately five new cases per 100,000 people annually. For a nation of fewer than 100,000 inhabitants, that translates to roughly five new diagnoses every year — a number that may sound small in isolation but carries considerable weight when measured against comparable populations. The wider Caribbean typically sees between two and four cases per 100,000. Globally, the disease affects roughly 2.2 men and 1.5 women per 100,000 each year. What elsewhere might be considered a relatively uncommon diagnosis has, in Antigua and Barbuda, become a routine encounter in local clinical practice.
Multiple myeloma originates in the bone marrow, where it corrupts plasma cells — the white blood cells responsible for producing antibodies. Those cells instead generate an abnormal protein that accumulates in the body, damaging the skeleton and kidneys while simultaneously suppressing normal immune function. The result is a patient who is not only battling cancer but is also left unusually vulnerable to bacterial infections.
The condition tends to announce itself late in life. Most diagnoses occur in patients over 65, with the median age falling between 69 and 70. Men are more commonly affected than women, and people of African descent face a disproportionately higher risk — a demographic reality with direct relevance to a population like that of Antigua and Barbuda. Obesity, hypertension, and pre-existing kidney disease are each associated with elevated risk, likely because they promote chronic inflammation and immune dysregulation — conditions that may, over time, trigger the cellular mutations from which myeloma develops.
What makes multiple myeloma particularly deceptive is how readily its early warning signs are dismissed or confused with those of less serious conditions. Persistent bone pain, unexplained weight loss, pronounced fatigue, and general weakness are common presenting complaints — but they are symptoms shared by any number of everyday ailments. Patients may also notice frequent urination or unusual cramping in the hands and feet. The key distinction, doctors say, is persistence. These symptoms do not resolve on their own. They worsen.
SLBMC is equipped to conduct initial diagnostic workups, including clinical examinations, urine tests, and blood chemistry panels that often reveal elevated calcium and protein levels. Imaging services — MRI, CT scans, and full-body bone surveys — are available at the hospital. Some specialised tests, however, including protein electrophoresis, a critical tool for detecting the abnormal proteins produced by myeloma cells, must currently be obtained through private laboratories. Treatment options exist locally and may combine chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted drug therapies. In more complex cases, stem cell transplants or CAR T-cell therapy — an approach that engineers the patient’s own immune cells to attack the cancer — may be considered.
Dr Omar Sol was direct in her message to the public: patients can be assessed and managed at the state hospital, and no one should wait. Early detection, she emphasised, remains the most critical factor in improving outcomes.
For a small island nation where five families a year receive this diagnosis, that urgency is not merely clinical advice; it is a public health imperative.
If you are experiencing persistent bone pain, unexplained fatigue, or other symptoms described in this article, consult a medical professional.
