GEORGETOWN – The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) announced a milestone achievement that its team successfully performed a kidney transplant between identical twin sisters.

The procedure, which took place on October 21, 2024, represents a significant advancement in Guyana’s healthcare capabilities.

The transplant team, led by Dr. Kishore Persaud, performed the surgery on a 22-year-old patient, with her identical twin sister serving as the donor.

According to GPHC, the close genetic match between identical twins made the procedure particularly smooth, with no intraoperative complications and minimal immunological risk.

The hospital confirmed that both sisters have recovered well, with the donor’s remaining kidney functioning effectively and the recipient’s new kidney showing stable health and optimal function.

Reflecting on the significance of this event, GPHC’s statement noted that, “In 1954, Dr. Joseph Murray and his team achieved a groundbreaking milestone in medical history by performing the world’s first successful human kidney transplant between identical twins.”

The statement continued: “We are thrilled to share that on October 21, 2024, the Transplant team at Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), led by Dr. Kishore Persaud, has successfully completed a similar transplant between two identical sisters.”

The hospital also noted: “As the first and only certified kidney transplant center in the nation, GPHC continues to deliver life-changing procedures to its patients. Both sisters are now home and will receive follow-up care to monitor their kidney health and ensure lasting success.” (Kaieteur News)

Photo: The twin. (Kaieteur News)

Paris –  Thousands of extra police officers are being deployed in and around Paris ahead of a France-Israel football match on Thursday which comes a week after violence exploded on the streets of Amsterdam. Pro-Palestinian groups are urging France against playing host to sporting teams of Israel while it is waging wars and deadly attacks in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, arguing that similar measures were taken against Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, few have snapped up tickets for the match at the Stade de France, which is north of Paris, throwing into question for some the necessity of a large-scale police operation. Officials say security at the match will be heavily reinforced. Police officers will be deployed at Stade de France and across public transport networks. Measures are being beefed up in part to prevent the kind of clashes that broke out in Amsterdam, the Dutch capital, before and after a football match between Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Netherlands’s Ajax team.

Leopold Lambert, an editor and architect in the French capital, said, ⁠“The atmosphere in Paris, at least for people who both have Palestine and football in mind, is the desire for a strong solidarity action to happen, which probably will have to occur outside of the stadium given the massive police apparatus.” (Aljazeera)

Photo: France is deploying thousands of extra police officers in order to prevent clashes during the France-Israel game (Reuters)

GUAYAQUIL – At least 15 people have been killed and 14 injured in clashes between inmates at one of Ecuador’s largest and most notorious prisons, local authorities say.

The violence broke out early Tuesday in one of the pavilions at Litoral Penitentiary in the coastal city of Guayaquil, according to national prison agency SNAI.

Both Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, and the prison itself are notorious for violent confrontations between rival gangs.

By Tuesday afternoon, authorities said they had managed to regain control of the prison and carried out a large-scale search.

Murder charges will be filed against at least nine inmates, the Attorney General’s Office said.

Ecuador’s prison system has long been the main theater of violence in the country, with hundreds of inmates killed in recent years as members of competing criminal organizations square off.

Security forces have often struggled to confront the gangs inside the overcrowded facilities, where inmates have been known to take control of branches of the penitentiaries and run criminal networks from behind bars, according to Ecuadorian authorities.

This is just the latest violent episode at Litoral Penitentiary, which has seen riots and massacres in recent years and is widely considered the country’s most dangerous prison.

Last year, more than 30 people were killed, some of them beheaded, during a multi-day uprising at the prison, while in September 2021, clashes between rival gangs left more than 100 people dead.

Two months ago, the penitentiary’s director María Daniela Icaza was killed in an armed attack while she was driving home.

Litoral Penitentiary is among five facilities that make up a major prison complex in Guayaquil.

In January, notorious gang leader José Adolfo “Fito” Macías escaped from one of those facilities, in a jailbreak that kicked off a wave of violence across the country.

Following the escape, President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency, deploying the armed forces across the country to crack down on gangs and criminal groups.

(CNN)

Foto: A special operations vehicle enters the Litoral Penitentiary facilities after clashes that left 15 inmates dead in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on November 12, 2024. (AFP)