Health officials in plea to parents for vaccinations

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

The Cayman Islands has joined its regional neighbours in promoting Vaccination Week, 2430 April, to focus on immunising children who have missed their measles, polio and rubella (German measles) vaccines.

Medical Officer of Health, Dr Kiran Kumar urged parents and guardians to take the opportunity of Vaccination Week to ensure the protection of their children.

He commented: “While Cayman is free from most of the vaccine-preventable diseases, we can’t be complacent, as we do not want resurgences of these conditions. There are no international boundaries for communicable diseases in the modern age.”

The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) has launched the week-long vaccination drive with the aim of vaccinating 40 million people in the Western Hemisphere, according to Public Health staff.

It’s the first time in PAHO’s 100 year-plus history that all countries in the hemisphere are holding immunisation activities in the same period.

This is an indication of how important vaccines are to public health, says Immunisation Programme Manager, Alice Jane Ebanks.

“Our local Public Health Department will focus on children born in 2000, 2001 and 2002, who are behind with any of their shots, polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, Haemophilus influenza b, measles, mumps or rubella,” she said.

Meanwhile, school nurses are directing their efforts at children born in 1997 and 1998 who have missed any of their immunisations.

While re-emphasising that Cayman’s immunisation coverage was largely within international health guidelines, Ms Ebanks noted that there was one exception, in 2003, only 83 percent of Cayman’s children, aged two years, were immunised against measles, mumps and rubella.

“We’d like to have at least 95 percent of our children immunised, because these illnesses are not child’s play,” she noted.

Recently, countries including Italy have had outbreaks and epidemics of measles; meanwhile, MMR vaccination rates are falling in the US and UK.

“This has serious implications for us, both as a tourist destination and as a multicultural society,” Ms Ebanks acknowledged.

For more information about Vaccination Week, contact your district health centre or your doctor.

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