Countries must strengthen vaccination against seasonal influenza and measles in order to prevent respiratory illness and vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks during the COVID-19 pandemic, experts at the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) said on Friday.
This advice, coming days before World Immunisation Week – observed in the last week of April – aims to highlight the collective action needed to ensure that every person is protected from diseases that are preventable, once they are properly vaccinated.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), this year’s theme is “Love. Trust. Protect. #GetVax.” As the world prepares to observe Immunisation Week – April 25 to May 2 – scientists are struggling to create a vaccine to combat the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19), which has had a grappling effect on not only the world’s population, but has halted the world’s economy. PAHO/WHO has said that, in 2003, more than 806 million people of all ages had been vaccinated against a wide range of dangerous diseases under the regional initiative promoted by PAHO.
Immunization is the process by which a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine. In essence, immunization is a proven tool for controlling and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases. It is also one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions, and prevents between two and three million deaths annually from diseases such as diphtheria, measles, pertussis, pneumonia, polio, rotavirus diarrhoea, rubella and tetanus.
During Vaccination Week, there are a number of activities usually planned in more than 180 countries across the world, including vaccination campaigns to raise awareness about the importance of being immunised.
This year, the WHO said, many countries have adapted creative solutions to continue vaccinating at-risk populations safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Brazil, Guyana’s neighbour, has set up vaccination posts in schools that are empty due to COVID-19, and supermarkets and pharmacies. In addition, they are offering drive-through vaccination and vaccination at home for people who are unable to leave their houses for health reasons.
Countries are also including messages related to COVID-19 prevention as part of their Vaccination Week campaigns, such as the importance of good hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette, and dispelling myths and misinformation about the disease.
In Guyana, like in many other countries, this special week provides an opportunity to remind families and communities in general how effective vaccines can be, and to encourage people to take action to ensure that more children — and increasingly, people in other age groups — are immunized against deadly and debilitating diseases. WHO had always maintained that there are, in the world, millions of unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children who have been put at serious risk of contracting these potentially fatal diseases. One out of 10 of these children has never received any vaccination, and most likely has never been seen by the health system.
The Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) – endorsed by 194 Member States of the World Health Assembly in May 2012 – aims to prevent millions of deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases by this year, through universal access to immunization.
To achieve the kind of progress that is needed, the WHO has urged that governments invest more in immunization efforts, advocates must make vaccines a priority, and people must get themselves and their families vaccinated.
Guyana’s immunisation programme has been largely successful, and has resulted in the eradication of illnesses such as polio, yellow fever, and measles, among others diseases. We urge all stakeholders to utilize World Vaccination Week, which is dedicated to immunization, to spread the message of the need to be vaccinated; especially in Guyana’s remote areas, where health officials still seem to be facing some challenges. This year, there is no doubt that social distancing will greatly impact this, but it must be remembered that vaccines save lives, and must be maintained even during the COVID-19 pandemic.
