Deyalsingh: Get vaccinated before Carnival

PEOPLE are reluctant to get vaccinated says Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh, as he warned of more deaths by Carnival if they did not.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday at the San Fernando General Hospital, where he congratulated the parents of TT’s first babies for 2020, Deyalsingh said “vaccine hesitancy” was also a problem here.

He said recently a statement was made in Parliament about the flu vaccine which, wrongly, gave the wrong impression that there was a raging controversy, when there was none.

“Unfortunately, we have shamed ourselves as a country. This country is now considered in the international medical community as a pariah state,” Deyalsingh said.

“It is unfortunate that TT has joined that infamous clan of anti-vaxxers,” he said.

He lamented because of the reckless statements, he has had to work ten times harder to counteract the negative effects.

Deyalsingh urged people to get vaccinated, especially with the influx of visitors expected for the Carnival period. “If the population does not protect itself now it will fall prey for Carnival and this could result in more deaths,” he warned.

According to him, the data from his ministry showed that the majority of flu-related deaths were East Indians, over the age of 60, primarily in south and central TT.

He said those who died were also diabetic, hypertensive and obese and most of them were not vaccinated.

At yesterday’s event, Deyalsingh gave out hampers to mothers of three babies born at the hospital on New Year’s Day. The first was Shauna Bascombe Mitchell, 34, from Fyzabad, who gave birth to a baby boy at 2.28 am. The second was Shannel Valdez, 28, from Penal, who gave birth to a baby girl at 4.52 am. Kimoy Wellington, from Couva, gave birth to the third baby born at 6.18 am.

Deyalsingh said the occasion was a joyous one, as he also celebrated TT’s significant progress in maternal and infant health.

“Our maternal mortality rates and infant mortality rates have plummeted since 2016 to now first-world standard,” he said.

He also said 2020 will be a busy year for his ministry.

“We started the refurbishment of the San Fernando General hospital and we will continue. The Point Fortin Hospital will be completed by March 2020 and the Arima Hospital. Work will continue on the central block in Port of Spain,” he said.

He also added that the Diego Martin health facility will be completed by August and work on the Sangre Grande hospital is also nearing completion.

The minister also expects to make a major announcement at the end of January on an extensive policy for treating cancer and revealed that Cabinet has already approved a policy for the decentralisation of the mental health system, which will be implemented this year.

He also spoke of the implementation of mono-therapy policy for diabetics, by March or April.

“Taking medication two and three times a day and taking a multiplicity of pills leads to non-compliance and we are trying to move the country under an initiative to redo our formula where patients are given one pill, once-a -day, in a process called mono-therapy as opposed to poly-therapy which is several drugs, several times a day.”