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In wake of outbreaks in the Americas…Guyana among countries bolstering surveillance
Recent outbreaks of measles, yellow fever and diphtheria in neighbouring Brazil, Venezuela, and other countries in the Americas h
PAHO/WHO Resident Rep., Dr. William Adu Krow.
ave left Guyana, and other countries, scrambling to intensify their vaccination activities.
This observation has been made by PAHO/WHO Resident Representative, Dr. William Adu Krow, even as Guyana joins the rest of the world to commemorate Vaccination Week in the Americas which spans April 20 to April 27, 2019.
This year marks the 17th observance of the Vaccination Week of the Americas campaign which is being held under the theme: “Protect your community, do your part – #GetVax, #VaccineWorks.”
Vaccination Week in the Americas is said to be an extraordinary effort led by the countries and territories of the Americas to advance equity, access to vaccination and Pan Americanism in general. Pan Americanism is a movement that seeks to create, encourage and organise relationships, associations and cooperation among the states of the Americas through diplomatic, political economic and social means.
The Vaccination Week activities seek to strengthen the national immunisation programmes by reaching out to populations with little access to regular health services, such as those populations living in rural and border areas in indigenous communities.
Moreover, during the observance of Vaccination Week, PAHO/WHO will be collaborating with the local Ministry of Public Health to further bolster efforts to strengthen surveillance and conduct vaccination mop up activities in the bordering and outlying communities.
Dr. Adu Krow has therefore urged that “the public should ensure that their families are protected from all vaccine preventable diseases especially measles, yellow fever and diphtheria.”
Persons are being urged to contact the nearest health centre in their area and to ask questions on these vaccines, Dr. Adu Krow said.
He made the appeal to, “Get Vaccinated Now! Protect yourself and your family from Measles, diphtheria, Tetanus and yellow fever; protect your community, do your part.”
Given Guyana’s track record, it is certainly poised to successfully combat these health concerns.
According to Dr. Adu Krow’s observation, Guyana has had numerous successes with its immunisation programme over several decades by implementing tactical strategies to combat preventable diseases in children.
Guyana’s Expanded Programme on Immunization [EPI] was initiated in the late 1970s with vaccinations against six diseases namely measles, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, diphtheria and tuberculosis.
The last case of yellow fever was in 1968, measles in 1991 and the last case of polio was in 1962.
At the end of 2018, the EPI offered additional antigens against yellow fever, hepatitis B, mumps heamophilus influenza, rubella, rotavirus and pneumococcal, meningococcal, and human papilloma virus were included. This programme has since expanded from a child immunization programme to a family immunization programme, Dr. Adu Krow shared.
Over 42 years, PAHO/WHO has contributed to the milestones of the achievements in the Americas which include the eradication of small pox, polio and measles, establishment of Vaccination Week of the Americas, the completion of the switch from trivalent oral polio vaccines to bivalent oral polio vaccines as part of the polio eradication plan for countries.
Also new vaccines were introduced to protect against influenza, respiratory illness and cervical cancer. This, the PAHO/WHO Rep. said, has been brought about by the strong commitment of health workers in the immunisation field.
The history of vaccination week of the Americas dates back to 2002 which was prompted by a measles outbreak. The health ministers of countries in the Andean region proposed a coordinated vaccination effort to strengthen vaccination week in the Americas.
Since the first celebration of Vaccination Week in the Americas in 2003, more than 323 million individuals of all ages have been vaccinated against a wide range of vaccine preventable diseases through activities conducted under the framework of the initiative.
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