Jamaica will be among the 25 Caribbean sub-regional countries vying for this year’s Henry C. Smith Immunization Award as well as the Immunization Surveillance Award at the 29th Caribbean Expanded Programme on Immunization Managers’ Meeting to be hosted at the Jewel Runaway Bay Beach and Golf Resort in St. Ann from November 18 – 21, 2013.
The Henry C. Smith award is given to the country that has made the most improvement in its Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) for the year. The country won the Henry C. Smith award in 2007 and again in 2011 and currently holds the trophy which will be handed over and awarded to this year’s winner at the meeting.
Director, Family Health Services at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Karen Lewis Bell, under whose portfolio immunization falls says the Ministry of Health has been putting in place mechanisms to continually strengthen Jamaica’s immunization programme.
She added that “while we have seen much success since the start of the EPI programme in 1977, we do not intend to slow our course where the programme is concerned as the health of our nation’s children is a priority for the Ministry of Health.”
“For 2012 we were able to achieve 97 percent coverage for BCG, and 96 percent for polio, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus (DPT), haemophilus influenza type B and hepatitis B and 93 percent for Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR), said Dr. Lewis Bell.”
This is an improvement over the 2011 figures in most areas when the country achieved a hundred percent coverage for Tuberculosis (BCG), 92 percent for Polio, Diphtheria, Pertussis or Whooping Cough Tetanus (DPT), Hepatitis B and Haemophilus Influenza Type B (HIB), and 88 percent coverage for Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR).
This is the first time Jamaica will be hosting the Caribbean EPI Managers meeting since its inaugural meeting held here in 1986. About 100 participants from more than 25 countries are expected to attend. Among the meeting’s objectives are to discuss and set targets for immunization coverage and the reduction of morbidity and mortality from vaccine preventable diseases. The meeting will also serve to analyze the status of each country’s EPI programme while identifying areas for further collaboration, strengthening and establishing targets for 2014. A training workshop for the sub-regional EPI Managers on 18 November will precede the Managers’ Meeting.
