November 19, 2013
Minister of Health, Dr. Fenton Ferguson is cautioning parents with respect to ensuring that their children are fully immunized for their age. Dr. Ferguson was speaking during the opening ceremony for the 29th Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) Managers Meeting for the Sub-region being held at Jewel Runaway Bay Beach and Golf Resort in St. Ann from November 19-21, 2013.
“I want people who use the argument that since other children are immunized it shouldn’t be a problem if their child is not, to understand that even today many countries of the world still have annual cases and outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases and these have been easily spread to other countries through international travel.”
He explained that Jamaica receives many visitors each year, indicating that data from the Tourism Ministry shows that between January and December last year we had 1.819 million stop over visitors.
“That is one million, eight hundred and nineteen thousand opportunities for the spread of any number of diseases. It is therefore imperative that we protect the health of every child through immunization. Our vaccines are offered at no cost to the caregiver in the public health sector and our public health nurses and midwives work very hard alongside communities especially those that are not readily accessible to ensure that children are immunized,” he said.
Jamaica has made considerable achievements in its EPI programme. 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 the first dose of Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR).
The objectives of the 29th Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) Managers meeting include discussing and setting 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.
This is the first time Jamaica will be hosting the Caribbean EPI Managers meeting since its inaugural meeting held here in 1981.
About 100 participants from more than 25 countries are in attendance.
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