“70 percent vaccination coverage doesn’t quite cut”

“70 percent vaccination coverage doesn’t quite cut” – DCMO

Nov 10, 2017 News

Although Guyana has been able to record an overall 90 percent vaccination coverage since 2002, there are some regions of the country that have to do much more in this regard. This was the recent observation of Deputy Chief Medical Officer [DCMO], Dr. Karen Boyle.
Her remarks were forthcoming as she revealed that some programmes have consistently put Guyana on the map for outstanding performances. These, she said, include the Maternal and Children Health Programme which has steadily achieved over 90 percent vaccination coverage over the past years. In fact she disclosed that in 2016 the coverage was 97 percent.
“In comparison to most other territories in the Americas, Guyana is a top performer. For this we should be proud and I take the opportunity to publicly commend the hard working team being capably led now by Dr. Ertenisa Hamilton,” said Dr. Boyle.
But according to the DCMO, “When we look a little deeper, internally, at the regional vaccination coverage, we see that not all children are created equal, not all babies have equal opportunities to be reached when they should be with the vaccination programme.”
She explained that the situation that exists is that some regions have a challenge to provide adequate vaccination coverage, especially in Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine.
“In some places, the coverage is as low as 70 percent,” said Dr. Boyle. “It should be understood that WHO [the World Health Organisation] recommends targeting 90 percent coverage to achieve something they call Herd Immunity.”
Herd Immunity, according to Dr. Boyle, simply means that “if you have enough people vaccinated, even if you import a case and if that person is surrounded by people who have already been vaccinated, it is not likely that you will have an outbreak.”
For this very reason, the DCMO stressed “it is important that you try to reach that 90 percent coverage.”
She added, “You can appreciate that 70 percent vaccination coverage doesn’t quite cut it, so the question must be what do we have to do differently to ensure that children born in the hinterland have equity in access to health services and that the services when delivered are culturally appropriate and therefore acceptable to them.”
It was Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings, who also underscored that “until we can ensure that every child, every person, is receiving his or her required vaccines, there remains much more to be done.”
According to Minister Cummings, based on information from the Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention, there are five main reasons for placing emphasis on immunization. These include the fact that “immunizations can save your child’s life; it is very safe and effective; immunization protects others you care about; immunizations can save your family time and money; and immunization protects future generations.”
“Vaccines promote health and unlike many other public health interventions, vaccines can help healthy people remain healthy, and at the same time remove a major obstacle to human development. Vaccines also have an expansive reach: They protect individuals, communities, and entire populations,” she added.
Through its Expanded Programme on Immunisation [EPI], the Public Health Ministry has been advancing its vaccination programme.
Guyana has had success with its Immunization Programme over several decades. In the 1970s, the programme started to vaccinate against six diseases – measles, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, diphtheria and tuberculosis – but by the end of 2015, additional antigens against yellow fever, Hepatitis B, mumps, haemophilus influenza, rubella, rotavirus and pneumococcal, meningococcal and human papilloma virus were included.

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“70 percent vaccination coverage doesn’t quite cut” – DCMO

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“70 percent vaccination coverage doesn’t quite cut” – DCMO

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