International recognition for Guyana’s vaccination programme

Dear Editor,
Over the years, Guyana’s vaccination programme has received much recognition internationally for its extensive coverage of over 98 per cent. At any standard, this is considered quite an achievement. Most recently, its robust immunisation programme received another accolade for efficient and sustained vaccination coverage. The programme has been a success since it commenced in the early 1970s, and has resulted in the eradication of illnesses such as polio, in 1962; yellow fever, in 1968; measles in 1991; and whooping cough in 2000. Also, the Health Ministry in January introduced Gardasil, a vaccine to defend against the ills of cervical cancer to Grade Six girls in Regions Three, Four, Five, and Six.
According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), disease prevention is key to public health. It is always better to prevent a disease than to treat it. Vaccines can protect both the people who receive them and those with whom they come into contact. Vaccines are responsible for the control of many infectious diseases that were once common – including polio; measles; diphtheria; pertussis (whooping cough); rubella (German measles); mumps; tetanus; and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib).
Further, strengthening routine immunisation services is crucial to achieving Millennium Development Goal Four of reducing deaths among children under-five by two-thirds by 2015, compared to 1990.
Over the years, vaccines have prevented countless cases of infectious diseases and saved literally millions of lives worldwide. About four in five children (83 per cent) worldwide received the recommended three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine during infancy in 2011, according to new data released in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and in the World Health Organisation’s Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER).
The new data shows sustained progress from the previous two years, and a significant achievement from when WHO’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) was established nearly 40 years ago. At that time, fewer than five per cent of the world’s children were being vaccinated against these three deadly diseases.
Achieving DTP vaccination of infants before they reach 12 months is one of the most important indicators of how effective vaccination programmes are in reaching children with life-saving vaccines. While substantial progress has been made, the new data shows that more than 22 million children, living mostly in less-developed countries, missed out on the three basic vaccinations during their first year of life in 2011.
At this year’s World Health Assembly, ministers of health endorsed a landmark Global Vaccine Action Plan – a roadmap to prevent millions of deaths by 2020 through more equitable access to existing vaccines for people in all communities.
Yours,
Rebecca Smith