CARPHA Calls for Action:  Get All Your Shots

CARPHA Calls for Action: Get All Your Shots

Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. 25 April 2022.  “For years, vaccines have protected children from deadly diseases like polio, measles, rubella, and mumps. These vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine, continue to save lives especially today,” stated Dr. Joy St. John, Executive Director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency, in observance of Vaccination Week in the Americas 2022.

This year, CARPHA joins its public health partners and the rest of the world in observing the 20th Annual Vaccination Week in the Americas (VWA 2022) which runs from April 24th to 30th under the theme “Are You Fully Vaccinated?  Get All Your Shots”

The Caribbean is the world leader in this regard, as the first region to eliminate measles.  In 1971, smallpox was successfully eradicated from the Caribbean, followed by the eradication of polio in 1994, and rubella and congenital rubella syndrome in 2015. Caribbean countries have applied high standards in the delivery of vaccination programmes to eliminate diseases that cause death and disability. However, if we fall behind in our programmes, we run the risk of recurrence of measles and other previously eradicated diseases like polio. More people are likely to get sick with vaccine preventable diseases, thus increasing the burden on the healthcare systems. 

To maintain community protection, Ministries of Health should continue their routine vaccine coverage. This will ensure that a person completes their vaccination schedule in the shortest possible time frame for effective protection.  Continued vigilance is important, and general practitioners should remain alert and prepared to take appropriate actions in suspected cases of vaccine-preventable diseases. 

Although a large percentage of persons in the Caribbean and countries of the Americas have been vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, many still remain unvaccinated.  The COVID-19 vaccines are our best protection against severe illness and death caused by this virus, and greater effort must be made to achieve maximum coverage so that economies can resume activity with the least disruption due to COVID-19.

Building defences against vaccine-preventable diseases requires a team effort, and each and every one of us is an integral part of that defence.  Let us do our part to keep our loved ones safe. Let us sound the call for action to encourage persons who are not fully vaccinated, to get all their vaccines; to ensure our young and old loved ones are vaccinated; and that no one suffers or dies from a vaccine-preventable disease.

It is more cost effective to prevent than to treat a disease - Act Now, Get All Your Shots!

In observance of VWA 2022, CARPHA has developed a multimedia toolkit. Visit here to access the toolkit and get more information about vaccines. 

###

Tags

Categories

News, Wellness

Share

Rating

0 ( 0 reviews)
  • Recent
  • Popular
  • Tag
  • CARPHA Encourages Persons to Know their Blood Pressure

    CARPHA Encourages Persons to Know their Blood Pressure

    0 Comments

    Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, May 16, 2014: The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) is calling on persons to know their blood pressure, strive to keep it healthy or lower it. This is in keep...
  • CARPHA and CTO Launch Tourism and Health Programme

    0 Comments

    CARPHA and CTO successfully launched the regional tourism and health programme and conducted an awareness and discussion workshop on Friday May 2, 2014 in Aruba. The keynote address was given by the M...
  • CARPHA’s new Chairman of the Board

    CARPHA’s new Chairman of the Board

    0 Comments

    Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, October 02, 2013: The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) is pleased to announce the appointment of the Honourable Colin Riley, Minister of Health of Montserrat...
  • Saint Lucia Joins Regional Project to Build Public Health Capacity

    Saint Lucia Joins Regional Project to Build Public Health Capacity

    0 Comments

    Castries, Saint Lucia, September 04, 2014. The Ministry of Health, Wellness, Human Services and Gender Relations, in collaboration with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), is launching the Ca...
  • New CARPHA lab to help region respond to health threats

    New CARPHA lab to help region respond to health threats

    1 Comments

    The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) moved today one step forward in its mission to provide strategic direction in analyzing, defining and responding to public health priorities of CARICOM, in ...
  • GRANT WRITING WORKSHOP

    0 Comments

    The Center for Global Health of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the U.S., in collaboration with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), St. George's Un...
  • CR-FELTP Trains New Mentors in Jamaica

    CR-FELTP Trains New Mentors in Jamaica

    0 Comments

    Caribbean Regional Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme (CR-FELTP) Trains New Mentors in Jamaica The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) hosted a four-day workshop in Kingston, Jam...
  • Risk of Ebola in the Caribbean

    Risk of Ebola in the Caribbean "Low"

    0 Comments

    Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, August 06, 2014: The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) says the risk of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) being imported to the Caribbean is low. Executive Direct...
  • Risk Communication Training to Help Senior Health Officials Better Manage Health Threats

    0 Comments

    Risk Communication Training to Help Senior Health Officials Better Manage Health Threats Providenciales, Turks and Caicos, June 19, 2016: "Risk communication is an important tool in managing health th...
  • Influenza Activity in the Caribbean

    Influenza Activity in the Caribbean

    2 Comments

    Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, September 26, 2013. The Caribbean, like other regions in the Americas, experiences seasonal influenza activity. Improved health monitoring by Ministries of Health i...