Ministry of Health goes on the road with vaccine awareness

The Ministry of Health Wellness and the Environment can boast of having 100 per cent immunization among pre-primary school aged children.

However, the need to maintain vaccination vigilance was further highlighted during this week when health practitioners and administrators in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) joined those of other countries in this hemisphere in observing Vaccination Week of the Americas.

On Friday, April 28 the Ministry staged a concert at Heritage Square in Kingstown which was preceded by a march through the streets of the capital to underscore the need for the population to continue making use of all available vaccines.

“Generally, we have good coverage for children,” Senior Nursing Office (Community Services) Julie Russell, told SEARCHLIGHT at the Heritage Square event in response to a question about the uptake for vaccines among  this demographic.

“As recently as 2022, our lowest coverage was for BCG vaccine which was 94 per cent, and we are not worried about that,” she said, explaining this was because the vaccine is administered up to the age of one year old.

Senior Nursing Officer Julie Russell

The vaccine awareness drive was however providing information about vaccines for persons “from infants to adults”.

The Heritage Square concert, which involved persons of varying age groups, was the penultimate in a series of activities that began with a vaccine awareness and wellness drive on Bequia in the Northern Grenadines on April 22.

Primary school students from Bequia and Chateaubelair, as well as members of the Diabetic and Hypertensive groups of Campden Park and Clare Valley, who are primarily adults, were among those actively involved in the event.

Some 47 pre-school teachers came together on Monday, April 24 for a session “reinforcing what they already know,” about the importance of vaccination Sr Russell pointed out.

Vaccination Week of the Americas is observed annually around this time among countries of the Americas. Health Authorities in SVG began on April 22, one day before the official observation period which ran from April 23-29.

The final activity was a Health Fair on Saturday, April 29 on the tarmac of the decommissioned E.T Joshua Airport.