Health Ministry expands vaccination drive to reach every child in 2025

The Health Ministry will be increasing resources to increase efforts towards community-based vaccination outreach in order to reach unvaccinated children wherever they are. This is among the wide range of measures being catered for in the $143.2 billion budgeted for the Ministry of Health for 2025.
This was explained by the Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, during the debate of the budget estimates last week. This year’s budget sees an additional $4 million being allocated to ramp up the vaccination outreach across the country, targeting areas with the greatest need.
“We want to meet the children, what we call the last mile, to make sure that they’re getting their vaccine and so forth. So very often we would empower the community health workers or nurses… so that they can go out, call these ppl, make sure they’re home, reach out to them to ensure that we can find them and bring them into the programme and ensure they get their vaccines,” Minister Anthony explained.
This increased investment in vaccination for children adds to a growing menu of measures in the health sector that continues to target children and improving the services available for children, and other vulnerable groups.
In the 2024 budget, children were among the target groups benefiting from the ministry’s $1.8 billion eye-testing, spectacles initiative which saw persons being able to access financial assistance from the government to get their eyes tested and outfitted with the required spectacles. The initiative catered for over 205,000 school children.
Through the initiative each child was eligible to receive a $2,000 voucher towards the cost of an eye test, and an additional $15,000 towards the purchase of spectacles. The programme formed part of the government’s holistic approach to healthcare.
In 2023 the Ministry launched the Comprehensive Child and Youth Health Programme (CYHP) which facilitated oral health, hearing and vision screening for children and pupils in nursery and primary schools. The initiative aimed at improving the health of school children aged 5-17. For this initiative the Health Ministry collaborates with the Ministry of Education.