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Jamaica will be hosting the 29^th Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) Managers Meeting for the Caribbean Sub-region from November 18-21, 2013 at the Jewel Runaway Bay Beach and Golf Resort in St. Ann. The sub-regional Meeting is being funded by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO).

 

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 analyse 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.

 

Minister of Health, Dr. Fenton Ferguson who will be the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony on November 19, 2013, said “Jamaica is part of a global effort aimed at reducing death and disability as a result of vaccine preventable diseases. The Ministry of Health’s Expanded Programme on Immunization has been a lifeline to Jamaica, preventing illness, disability and in many cases death by eliminating or reducing the prevalence of vaccine preventable diseases. This meeting is an opportunity for us to evaluate our position with respect to immunization on a Regional, country and individual level.”

 

Ms. Margareta Sköld, Country Representative of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization in Jamaica, says that “disease outbreaks affect everyone and immunization is and remains one of the safest and most cost-effective preventive interventions in health. Linking another intervention to a strong immunization program has the possibility to quickly increase coverage and impact for the added intervention. Close cooperation and combined efforts between countries and international and local partners have also been a distinctive characteristic of our vaccination programmes.”