TT free of most vaccine preventable diseases

TRINIDAD and Tobago’s immunisation programme has been so well managed, it has proven to be cost effective and has saved Government millions of dollars. As a result, most of the common diseases requiring immunisation no longer exist here. Another milestone is the combination of vaccines to allow for fewer injections for children. This was revealed yesterday at the launch of the third edition of the Immunisation Manual for health professionals under the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI). The last edition of the manual was released in 1991, more than ten years ago.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Hamid O’Brien, deputising for Health Minister John Rahael, thanked health care professionals, especially community nurses, for saving Government millions of dollars. He said this latest manual, which will be made available to the 105 health centres, hospitals and later to each general practitioner in the country, reflected the necessity for children to be immunised at the earliest possible time in their lives. In addition, he said the manual incorporates additional vaccines like Pentavalent vaccine DPT/Hepatitis/ Haemophilus Influenza type B.

O’Brien said “The induction of new combination vaccines improves the ability of health care providers to deliver safe and effective vaccines to infants and children with fewer injections.” He added that in the absence of protection by immunisation, vaccine preventable diseases can cause high morbidity and disability, especially in infancy and early childhood and even into adulthood.

Retired Principal Medical Officer Dr Pooran Ramlal, who worked on the manual with several others including nurse Jean Creese, retired EPI Co-ordinator, was happy to report that small pox has been eliminated in TT and there have been no cases of yellow fever for 25 years, no polio cases in the last 30 years, no measles cases since 1991, except for one imported case, and there is hardly the possibility of children being born with the congenital rubella syndrome. He said the latter was as a result of more than 90 percent of women being covered for measles. Dr Ramlal emphasised that immunisation was not a childhood programme but spans all ages and the “kingpin to the programmes was surveillance.”

Dr Lillian Renaud-Vernon, representative for the Pan American Health Organisation, World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO), said the excellent health record of immunisation has encouraged governments to incorporate immunisation programmes into their policies. She said through the combined efforts of governments in the Americas, “Today we can say that the lives of over 200,000 children in Latin America and the Caribbean are saved each year as a result of regional vaccination campaigns to prevent measles, neonatal tetanus and whooping cough.”

She added that the “challenges are maintaining the region’s polio free status, achieving the eradication of measles, holding to the marked reduction in cases of neonatal tetanus by identifying high risk areas and routinely immunising women of childbearing age and introducing new vaccines.” Among the new sections included in the manuals are immunisation and travel, new vaccines including varicella and rotavirus which are not used in TT, vaccine safety and care of vaccines.