Health Minister signs new order to update vaccination legislation

May 12, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony has signed a new order which will pave the way for the Health Act to be updated to cover some 16 already functional immunisation programmes under the Ministry of Health.

Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony signs a document, which will pave way to update vaccination laws, (seated at left) is Dr. Luis Codina, PAHO, WHO representative to Guyana as other healthcare operatives look on.

Speaking at the Maternal /Child Health Department’s Quarterly Review held at the Grand Coastal Hotel on Wednesday, Minister Anthony spoke of the decision to have the Health Act amended to cover all the vaccination programmes that are currently available to the public. “If you look at our health legislation, you will see that in 1974 when it came into force, we were only authorised to vaccinate for six different diseases… Today, we are doing vaccinating for approximately sixteen diseases,” said Dr. Anthony.
He continued: “If you look at the legislation, you will see that it is outdated because we no longer vaccinate for small pox… the world has done a good job at getting rid of small pox.” He explained therefore that the time has come for the Act to be updated. “We need to amend the law because many of the vaccines we have been giving although people have been accepting them are not covered by the law.”
As such, Minister Anthony said that during the observance of vaccination week in the Americas, he took the issue before Cabinet for approval to have the legislation expanded to cover the entire vaccination programme.
Minister Anthony first announced that the ministry will be updating all outdated laws pertaining to vaccination in the country during vaccination week which is observed in the last week in April. Speaking at an event in Region Six, he noted that, “One of the things that we’ll be doing is making sure that the law is in keeping with what we have been doing over the years, making sure that what you have already been doing in the community across the country that our law would support that, so we’ll make that change during this week.”
Similarly, Advisor to the Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy who was also present, spoke of the importance of vaccination particularly as it relates to children. “We are using this time to recommit ourselves and to assure our people that we will not rest until every child is vaccinated. That is our measure of success,” he noted.
He continued, “This year, as we celebrate the 20th version of vaccination week, we would like to see Region Six reaffirming and recommitting and rededicating itself, because if there is one child in our region or in Guyana that is not having his or her vaccine then we would have failed.” This year, the health ministry will be focusing on getting all children under the age of five fully vaccinated. In addition, extensive campaigns will be rolled out for HPV and COVID-19 vaccination across Guyana.

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