COVID-booster era demands up-to-date shots to remain safe – MCH Officer

Guyanese should remain up to date with their booster shots for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), especially if they are travelling to locations where the disease is still rampant.
Maternal and Child Health Officer, Dr Oneka Scott was featured in the Health Matters Programme as Guyana joined the observance of Vaccination Week in the Americas.
She underscored that each vaccine is important to complete the cycle necessary for achieving immunity. It was pointed out that COVID primary and booster doses should be kept updated to remain safe from the deadly virus.
“Nobody has an excuse not to get up to date…Getting up to date also means that you remember that we are in the COVID booster era. By now, all of us should have gotten our primary series and six months after each primary series, you are entitled to your booster dose, especially if you’re travelling to places of the world where COVID-19 is still rampant,” she noted.
Generally, the healthcare professional shared that some persons are still unaware of their immunisation requirements – an issue which the Health Ministry is aiming to rectify.
“We really do have to focus on our local immunisation schedule. We find that many people don’t know at the age they are, what vaccine they should have had. We’ve had rather unfortunate circumstances of people not recognising the need for a travel vaccine. For example, yellow fever has been quite in the news lately – a vaccine required for countries that still have a threat of endemic yellow fever disease.”
Like last year, this Vaccination Week also provided special attention to vulnerable and high-risk populations, as well as the armed forces, educators, people with special needs, and elderly.
However, Dr Scott also drew focus on the migrant population in the country and the need to monitor potential measles outbreaks. While Guyana is measles-free, cases are detected in neighbouring Venezuela and Brazil.
“We do have a migrant population in Guyana and some of those migrants are coming from areas where unfortunately, vaccines are not available. In the Caribbean and Latin American territories, we are still on alert for measles outbreaks that are actively occurring in Venezuela and in Brazil.”
The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) has outlined that different diseases can be prevented through immunisation at different ages.
In newborns, Hepatitis B and tuberculosis can be prevented while in the first year of life, it is diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, Hib disease, Hepatitis B, pneumococcal disease and Rotavirus.
In the second year of life, diseases which can be curbed include yellow fever, measles, rubella and mumps. In children, it is whooping cough, and COVID-19 among others. For adolescents, vaccination can reduce HPV infection, chickenpox and also COVID-19.