By Tajeram Mohabir
THE 31st Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI) managers meeting opened yesterday at the Marriott Hotel with Minister of Public Health Dr George Norton committing Guyana to 100 per cent coverage in the next few years.

The immunisation programme has been Guyana’s most successful, with coverage of over 90 per cent. Every year about two per cent of the health sector budget goes towards immunisation.
“[We]Want more money to be spent on this programme. [We]Want 100 per cent coverage of the immunisation programme. We remain committed to the immunisation of Guyanese children,” Dr Norton told participants at the confabulation who are drawn from 29 countries in the English, Dutch and French-speaking Caribbean.
The vision of the government, he said, is for all Guyanese to enjoy an improved quality of life; equal access to primary, secondary and tertiary education; better health outcomes; and to be gainfully employed.
These, the minister said, will allow citizens to contribute in a more meaningful way towards the development of Guyana.
The primary focus of the Public Health Ministry is to build capacity in the primary health-care system. Guyana needs a sound primary health-care system, Dr Norton said.
But aside from this, he told the confabulation that Guyana wants its “hinterland and coastland to benefit from free, quality health care” and for health to be a “component of all policies”.
Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) Guyana Representative Dr William Adu-Krow also spoke at the meeting and commended Guyana’s immunisation programme.
He pointed out that a global survey has placed Guyana third among 75 countries in immunisation coverage.
“This is a laudable feat, because a lot of our nurses are working really hard,” he said as he praised the efforts of all, but singling out those in the hinterland regions for special mention.
Underscoring the importance of early immunisation, the PAHO/WHO representative said Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination of girl age 10 to 13 protects against cervical cancer.
In Guyana, two common types of cancer have been cancer in cervix and breast cancer.

A whole generation
Vaccination of girls ages 10, 11, 12, 13 with HPV protects them from cervical cancer, and by extension, protects a whole generation.
The EPI is a top priority of the PAHO/WHO. The United Nations Child Fund (UNICEF) is also a major partner in the immunisation drive.
The Global Vaccine Action Plan endorsed by 194 nations of the World Health Assembly in 2012, provides the framework to prevent millions of deaths by 2020, through more equitable access to existing vaccines for people in all communities.
This plan is currently being implemented in countries the world over.
The EPI focuses initially on a number of infectious diseases which are preventable such as measles, paralytic poliomyelitis, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus and tuberculosis.
These diseases were selected because they would be prevented by immunisation and had high global occurrence rates with corresponding morbidities, disabilities and mortalities.
Polio transmission still remains a challenged area globally, Dr Adu-Krow said. In September, PAHO/WHO provided Guyana support in the introduction of IPV vaccines to infants at two months, in keeping with the plan of the Polio Endgame Strategy.
EPI Guyana has had success with its immunisation programme over the past decade.
This has come about with the strategies used to combat preventable diseases in children, the PAHO/WHO representative said.
In the 1970s, the programme started to vaccinate against six diseases, namely measles, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, diphtheria and tuberculosis; and in 2012, additional antigens against yellow fever, hepatitis B, mumps, heamophilus influenza, rubella, rotavirus and pneumococcal, meningococcal and Human Papilloma Virus were introduced.
At the end of 2014, the EPI programme in Guyana had provided protection against 16 vaccine preventable disease.
In addition, chicken pox vaccines were also introduced to vulnerable groups with the support of PAHO/WHO.
“This success has also been made possible through the PAHO/WHO Revolving Fund in making vaccines easier to obtain, safe and reliable. There has been significant progress towards this end in protecting the public from vaccine preventable diseases. EPI has moved from a childhood programme over the last decade to include adolescents, and now the entire family,” Dr Adu-Krow said.
The participants at the meeting which will on Friday include representatives of the U.S. and PAHO/WHO Regional Office in Washington D.C.