Immunisation law to be upgraded this week – Health Minister

…says Pfizer vaccines available to immunise country’s adolescent population

The Health Ministry will be updating the outdated Public Health Immunisation Act 1974 this week to reflect on the current efforts undertaken by Guyana to guarantee a safer population.
At the launch of Vaccination Week in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony stated that the Public Health (Childhood) Immunisation Act 1974 needs to be updated since some of the vaccines mentioned are no longer being administered, and new ones have since been introduced.
This week, the work being done by the Health Ministry with respect to vaccines will be reflected in the law.

“We’re no longer doing smallpox but we have an expanded immunisation programme. If we look at the vaccines we’re giving, we’re probably doing more than 20 different antigens. That schedule needs to be updated and during this week, one of the things we will be doing is making sure that the law is in keeping with what we have been doing over the years…The law will support that and we’ll make that change,” the Minister highlighted.
Dr Anthony reminded that vaccines have been proven useful in Guyana for decades, averting deaths and illnesses.
“We know that vaccines work and they have been working for a long time and we’ve seen that because of vaccinations, we have been able to avert a lot of deaths, especially among children. Guyana, over the years, has been able to achieve a record amount of coverage for various types of childhood vaccines.”
During the pandemic, he added, efforts should continue to immunise children against the coronavirus and offer protection. It would significantly decrease the possibility of severe infection or hospitalisation.
“Even despite of the challenges we’ve had with COVID, our vaccination rates have remained quite high. We would not have been able to achieve that if it was not for the workers, people who made sacrifices and made sure that we find the children and vaccinate them.”
Guyana has enough Pfizer vaccines to immunise the country’s adolescent population. By June, he reiterated that the 70 per cent coverage for COVID-19 can be achieved with a little extra action.
“I think a lot of people have grown complacent. A lot of people believe that COVID is over and because we’re not getting a lot of cases now, that we don’t have to worry about COVID. I have to disappoint you. COVID is not over and in fact, what we’re seeing now is that there are different variants or sub-variants of Omicron that are now circulating,” he contended.
World Immunisation Week, celebrated in the last week of April, aims to highlight the collective action needed and to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) works with countries across the globe to “raise awareness of the value of vaccines and immunisation and ensures that governments obtain the necessary guidance and technical support to implement high-quality immunisation programmes”.