Immunisation survey
coming later this year
PHILIPSBURG--An extensive survey to determine immunisation coverage of children in St. Maarten will be conducted later this year, the Preventive Health Department of Sector Health Care Affairs (SHCA) announced Tuesday.
“This survey will give us more accurate information on the immunisation coverage, because interviewers will go into the different districts to acquire immunisation data from the parents or guardians,” Government Information Services (GIS) quoted Preventative Health Department Head Dr. Rachel Eersel as saying.
She continued: “The immunisation coverage survey is part of the larger goal of measles and rubella certification process in the world. It is very important to have your population at least 95 per cent immunised, as this would guarantee that you won’t have an outbreak.”
The details pertaining to the plan for the survey, which will be conducted among children younger than five years, were discussed recently when local health care officials met with Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) consultant Dr. James Dobbins during his two-day visit to St. Maarten.
While here, Dobbins met with officials of the EPI Platform, which comprises representatives of the Baby Clinic, White and Yellow Cross Foundation, SHCA and American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, as well as general practitioners, pharmacists and paediatricians.
The meetings with health stakeholders focused on gathering of information to develop terms of reference for the survey. The terms of reference will include specification of the objectives, scope, and timeframe of the survey, as well as specification of the resources needed for executing it.
GIS said information on the in initiative would be provided to the public closer to the implementation phase.
Immunisation is a way of protecting children against serious disease. Once a person has been fully vaccinated, his or her body can fight those diseases if it comes into contact with them. Vaccinations have proven to prevent outbreaks and the spread of contagious diseases, and SHCA is urging all parents to ensure that their children’s vaccinations are up to date.
It was noted that because people are able to travel from one part of the world to the next within a short period of time, communicable diseases can spread easily from one country to another. It is therefore necessary to make sure that the population is protected against vaccine-preventable diseases, it was stressed.
