Health Ministry: Keep up with immunisation schedule for children

Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh has once again told parents and guardians to make sure their children are up to date with their immunisations to prevent an outbreak of disease among children. He said immunisation is especially important during the covid19 pandemic.

In a Ministry of Health virtual press conference on Monday morning, Deyalsingh said, "In the context of covid19, we need to attain a vaccination rate to get herd immunity of 95 to 97 per cent."

A country needs over 95 per cent vaccination to prevent an outbreak, explained Grace Sookchand, manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation.

But she said there has been a decrease in vaccinations in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

There is an adequate supply of vaccine, but there has been a decline in public demand which could be linked to the fear of exposure of contracting covid19. She said other covid19 restrictions could be another factor in why fewer children are being vaccinated.

In March, the ministry implemented a block appointment system to prevent overcrowding, telephone appointments and extra sanitisation at health centres to encourage parents to keep up to date with immunisations but the number of children coming in for vaccination is still falling.

Sookchand warned that failure to vaccinate children could lead to the "reintroduction of vaccine- preventable disease and increased death due to communicable diseases."

She said TT had not recorded an outbreak of measles and polio in over two decades but if children did not get two dosages of the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine the country could find itself battling covid19 along with several other diseases.

The MMR vaccine is a two-stage vaccine. The first dose is given to one-year-old children and the second dose – previously given at age five – has been readjusted and is now given at age two.

Sookchand explained two dosages of the MMR vaccine must be taken to be fully immunised so the body will be able to build up immunity to fight off diseases.

Epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds said, if citizens moved away from routine vaccination, an outbreak of diseases would be imminent.