TO provide equal access to healthcare for persons with hearing and speech disabilities, the Ministry of Health recently conducted a sensitisation initiative to bring awareness to the various health programmes being implemented.

The ministry’s Maternal and Child Health Department facilitated the exercise at the Grand Coastal Hotel last Saturday.

Sign language expert Leticia Alexander and Public Health Nurse Edol Ainsworth were the facilitators of the session.

Through hand signing and other means of communication, persons were lectured on the routine immunisation programme, the COVID-19 and booster vaccines, along with the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines.

Maternal and Child Health Officer, Dr. Oneka Scott disclosed that the initiative will be done in three phases, with the first being to educate persons on the benefits of the vaccines.
The other sessions consist of advancing engagements with adolescents and developing vaccine promotional content using sign language.

Dr. Scott pointed out that health literacy plays an important role in people’s choices and noted that the activity would improve one’s approach to health.

To continue to deliver accessible and quality healthcare to its citizens, the Government of Guyana, through the Health Ministry, conducted a series of COVID-19 drive-through vaccination exercises, while several outreaches are ongoing to increase the number of administered vaccines for HPV.

Similar campaigns are being done for yellow fever, Hepatitis B, measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), and tetanus, amongst many others.

Although the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently announced that COVID-19 is no longer a public health emergency, Subject Minister Dr. Frank Anthony has encouraged Guyanese to remain vigilant and take precautions.

The sum of $84.9 million was allotted for the healthcare sector in this year’s budget.