Guyana, Brazil target increased vaccine coverage
Director-General of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo (seated right); Secretary of Health Surveillance, representing the Minister of Health of Brazil, Arnaldo Medeiros (seated left); Director of the Department of International Co-operation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Forbes July and other officials at the launch of World Vaccination Week in Bonfim, on Wednesday (Aubrey Odle photo)
Director-General of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo (seated right); Secretary of Health Surveillance, representing the Minister of Health of Brazil, Arnaldo Medeiros (seated left); Director of the Department of International Co-operation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Forbes July and other officials at the launch of World Vaccination Week in Bonfim, on Wednesday (Aubrey Odle photo)

— mull joint campaign to enhance immunisation at collaborative launch of World Vaccination Week 2022

RECOVERING from immunisation shortfalls induced by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and increasing routine vaccination will be high on the agenda for Guyana and Brazil, as the two countries gear up for World Vaccination Week 2022, from April 25 to 29.

The severity of the pandemic had necessitated a response, which, in some cases, entailed a diversion of resources from some programmes and projects to strategic initiatives intended to reduce the spread of the disease and protect the lives and livelihoods of citizens.

For just over two years, countries were left with no choice but to place immense attention on the pandemic, leaving room for shortfalls and gaps in other areas like immunisation. And although Guyana and Brazil have both recorded successful COVID-19 vaccination rates, both countries intend on addressing bottlenecks wherever they might exist and increasing the rate of routine immunisation.

To show their joint commitment to enhancing immunisation efforts, Guyana and Brazil teamed up to launch World Vaccination Week 2022 in Bonfim, on Wednesday.

World Vaccination Week aims to highlight the collective action needed and to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.

Director-General of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo spoke at the launch.

“We need to come up with new, better approaches because we, as health professionals, we, as health workers, we know what is right. It is our duty to convince that parent, to convince those who need to be vaccinated that vaccine is good, vaccine is safe, vaccine is necessary, not only for the individual, but for the community at large,” he said.

Moving forward, Dr. Mahadeo advised the authorities to adopt key takeaways from the COVID-19 pandemic, which include, among other things, active surveillance of social media for misinformation, better innovative approaches and the utilisation of technology for vaccination programmes.

While also expressing the need to appreciate health workers who execute those programmes, the Director-General said it takes a government that has the welfare of the citizens at heart, to come up with plans to address vaccination issues and provide funding for various programmes.

Almost 20 years ago, Guyana and Brazil had partnered to launch Vaccination Week in the Americas; this predates the launch of World Vaccination Week.

“After 20 years of Vaccination Week, we are in a very important moment… we lost 20 points of [vaccination] coverage in some countries in the [Latin America and Caribbean] region… we lost between 15 and 20 points of coverage due to the pandemic,” Representative of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) to Guyana, Dr. Luis Codina, said in his remarks at the launch.

Dr. Codina used the popular statement, “diseases do not respect borders” to highlight the importance of collaboration in improving national immunisation rates.

He emphasised the need to strengthen national programmes in order to have increased coverage and highlighted that there is an opportunity for Guyana and Brazil to enhance technical co-operation in many areas.

“There are many areas to exchange between Guyana and Brazil… not only in malaria, but also at the national level, like Brazil with telemedicine and all the initiatives in place and experience in Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) from Guyana,” Dr. Codina said, adding: “[However], for this to happen, political support is necessary.”

His counterpart in Brazil, Dr. Socorro Grosso, also said: “Although divided by borders, the countries [Guyana and Brazil] have always worked together on good health promotion.”

Health workers from Guyana commemorating World Vaccination Week with an acrostic on Wednesday (Aubrey Odle photo)

STRONG ADVOCATES
In her view, both countries have been strong advocates for vaccination in the world and have always been among the nations in the Americas with the best rate of vaccination.

The joint launch of World Vaccination Week is testimony to the commitment of Guyana and Brazil to the promotion of immunisation initiatives.

“…we can show the world that we can work together to ensure everyone is healthy and immunisation of our population, especially children,” Dr. Grosso said, adding that PAHO/WHO stands ready to support both nations in their efforts to increase immunisation rates.

The WHO works with countries across the globe to raise awareness of the value of vaccines and immunisation and ensures that governments obtain the necessary guidance and technical support to implement high-quality immunisation programmes.

The ultimate goal of World Immunisation Week, according to WHO, is for more people and their communities to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases. Vaccines reduce risks of getting a disease by working with the body’s natural defences to build protection.

“We now have vaccines to prevent more than 20 life-threatening diseases, helping people of all ages live longer, healthier lives. Immunisation currently prevents two–three million deaths every year from diseases like diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, influenza and measles,” the WHO said on its website.

In Guyana, despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination coverage for children stood at approximately 90 per cent up to April, last year. In some instances, immunisation levels even touched 100 per cent coverage, making this an exceptional fete for Guyana.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative to Guyana and Suriname, Irfan Akhtar, said that more than 80 per cent of children worldwide receive lifesaving vaccines each year, but there are about 23 million children who are missing their vaccines. Those persons, he said, live in conflict zones, remote areas and informal urban settings.

“This is testimony that we should reach out to everyone, everywhere,” Akhtar said, adding that within the past two years some 1.1 billion children have been immunised.

Vaccination efforts, he said, represent love for the next generation, so there must be sustained efforts to increase immunisation rates.

It is also for this reason that Akhtar’s counterpart in Brazil, Ana Spiassi, requested that both Guyana and Brazil pay special attention to the funding of vaccination campaigns.

Vice-Secretary of Health of the State of Roraima and representative of the Governor of Roraima, Edson Castro Neto, while not responding directly to Spiassi, said that Brazil stands ready to support Guyana with resources to execute vaccination campaigns.

Subsequent to this announcement, Secretary of Health Surveillance, representing the Minister of Health of Brazil, Arnaldo Medeiros, said: “In co-operation with countries in our region, we can have a strong public health system where we can say the entire population is fully protected.”

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