The 37th Meeting of the Caribbean Immunization Managers
During the last week of April, Belize joined countries and territories of the Region of Americans to celebrate the Twenty-first Vaccination Week in the Americas and the Twelfth World Immunization Week. It was used to emphasize the significant role that vaccines play in protecting individuals and their loved ones, as well as highlighted the importance of vaccines for a long and healthy life. Fast forward to today at the Biltmore Plaza in Belize City, the thirty-seventh meeting of Caribbean Immunization Managers took place where health professionals converged. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Henry Smith
Henry Smith, Retiree, PAHO/WHO
“The person can be contacted and can manage the program and responsible for all the activities of that program in the health sector.”
Duane Moody, Reporting
PAHO’s former manager for the Expanded Program on Immunization for the Caribbean, Henry Smith, is referring to the establishment of immunization managers in CARICOM states in the 1970s. He says that the program came about after the successful eradication of small pox and now, there are immunization managers in all the countries.
Henry Smith
“Vaccine was purchased at a lower cost than if you had to buy it from particular agents which made it very economical to run the programs and all the countries agreed to this with their ministers of health. And then we started to increase immunization coverage to a level of eighty to ninety percent which would prevent the diseases from transition. After that we developed the surveillance system which will capture any individual who has any of these diseases, but specifically measles, rubella and poliomyelitis. That went on and we gradually eliminated measles from the Caribbean; that is indigenous measles.”
Today, a two-day conference, the thirty-seventh annual Meeting of the Caribbean Immunization Managers began and saw the participation of health professionals from twenty-five English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean countries. They are sharing best practices, as well as issues of healthcare service and review achievements and plan for next year. So where does Belize stand in providing immunization coverage? Well, COVID affected our numbers, but Doctor Natalia Largaespada Beer says that we are building back up our numbers.
Natalia Largaespada Beer
Dr. Natalia Largaespada Beer, Maternal & Child Health Technical Advisor, M.O.H.W.
“We have the target for the immunization program is ninety-five percent. So we either have ninety-five or we don’t have ninety-five. In all the Caribbean countries, well maybe not only in the Caribbean, but worldwide, there had been a decrease in the coverage of vaccines before COVID. And COVID just come and made it a little bit worse because our coverage fell from ninety/ninety-five to ninety-three, ninety-two to the sixties during COVID. And currently we are up to the eighties, but not yet reaching ninety-five. So we have a long way to go to get to that level where we were even before COVID.”
The Caribbean was the first to have eliminated polio in 1982; the rest of the Americas did so in 1991. And for measles, the Caribbean eliminated the disease in 1991 and in 2015 the Americas was certified as measles free. There are currently some countries in Latin America and South America that are experiencing an increase in measles cases and have lost their certification, but not the Caribbean. PAHO/WHO Representative in Belize, Doctor Karen Lewis-Bell says that the rest of the world looks at the Caribbean as leaders in immunization.
Karen Lewis-Bell
Dr. Karen Lewis-Bell, PAHO/WHO Representative, Belize
“Through the support of CARICOM, these countries have always worked together in a very collaborative way to ensure that they advance immunization program and that they were very deliberate and decisive in moving towards the elimination of diseases; those that are vaccine preventable. And so certainly the Caribbean lead the way in the entire world in the elimination of disease. Vaccination is very important because a lot of these diseases can cause significant illness and death. Many of the younger parents now have never seen a case of measles or a case of polio or a case of congenital rubella syndrome and so we take it for granted. But those of us older ones, who are healthcare practitioners would remember seeing children struggle, would remember seeing the mental retardation, the deafness, the blindness that can come from congenital rubella, the pneumonia, the dehydration, the malnutrition that you can get with measles. Certainly, the paralysis that you can get with polio and more importantly these diseases can really cause death. And so I would love to take this opportunity to urge parents to get your children vaccinated.”
There are a lot of myths – misinformation, disinformation – about the safety of vaccines, but the scientific and evidence-based medicine can prevent illnesses and possible death. In Belize, the Ministry of Health and Wellness has been doing mobile clinics and going to communities to provide these services. It started during the COVID pandemic and has stuck.
Dr. Natalia Largaespada Beer
“They do go to the communities, five to six time per year each community, carrying the vaccine closer to home. Of course as Doctor Bell was mentioning, having your child protected against these preventable diseases is the responsibility of the family. So we need to work more with the families because the vaccines are closer to home, but the coverage is still low.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
