The Caribbean continues to lead the way in Immunization against preventable diseases internationally.
And, in view of this, today Belize was given the opportunity to host, for a second time, the Annual meeting of the Caribbean Immunization Managers at the Biltmore.
Jomarie Lanza attended the meeting and spoke with Belize's key personnel who play a vital role in improving the country's immunization numbers.
The threshold for PAHO's Immunization coverage across the Caribbean stands at 95% of the population. Belize's immunization coverage against vaccine preventable diseases such as measles, polio and rubella is above 80%. Compared to the 60% it was during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Belize continues to make progress in building community Immunization, primarily among children under 5 years old. Today they were able to share these achievements and findings with other colleagues from the Caribbean at the 37th Meeting of the Caribbean Immunization Managers, where they discussed all the current challenges being faced in trying to increase each country's immunization numbers.
Karen Lewis Bell, PAHO representative
"So the 37th Caribbean expanded programme on immunization managers meeting being held in Belize this week really is conducted on a rotational basis there are 25 counties and territories of the English and Dutch speaking Caribbean who meet every single year and the purpose of that meeting is to collaborate and collectively review the achievements that they have had in immunization in the past year, share country experiences and plan together for the future. The Caribbean has always led the way in immunization. The expanded programme on immunization was established in 1977 and by 1990 all countries in the Caribbean had their programmes fully established. And through the support of Caricom, these countries have always worked together in a very collaborative way to ensure that the advance of immunization programs and that they were very deliberate and decisive in moving toward the elimination of diseases. Those that are vaccine preventable and so certainly the Caribbean led the way in the entire world in the elimination of diseases so the Caribbean was the very first in the world to have eliminated polio. They did that in 1982 and the rest of the Americas did not eliminate polio until 1981 for measles the Caribbean eliminated that in 1981 and for the rest of the Americas elimination was held in 2002 but then there was a resurgence of the disease in some of the countries in South America and it was not until 2015 that the region of the Americas was again certified having eliminated measles. However, a number of counties again in Latin America and South America have had an increase in measles again so those countries did lose their certification but I am really happy to say that all the countries of the Caribbean have been able to maintain their elimination. And so the rest of the world always looks to the Caribbean to see how we do our Mass vaccination campaigns, and how we work together as a sub region to ensure that the children especially, all the children under 5 are adequately protected from a number of these diseases."
Belize had hosted the last meeting in 2004, and one of the main areas of interest in today's meet has to do with the uptake of the HPV vaccine to reduce cervical cancer in young adults.
Dr Natalia Beer, MCH Advisor
"Every year they raise a regional meeting called the Carribean expanded program and immunization managers meeting. This is a technical meeting where countries from the Caribbean come together and they discuss the latest evidence available on vaccines, and it is also an opportunity to share best practices and the countries at the same time come and review their achievements for the previous year and plan for the following year so this is the English speaking Caribbean countries that came on this occasion to Belize. It is the hosting of the meeting is rotated among the Caribbean countries."
"Priority is given to major public health problems, the Caribbean sub region has experienced a decrease in the vaccination coverage, and this is in all Caribbean countries even before Covid and then that reduces much more with covid. So that's an area we need to strengthen how to increase the coverage of the routine vaccines. The next point that will be discussed is how can we improve the uptake of the human papillomavirus vaccine for reducing cervical cancer so it depends on the epidemiological profile of the caribbean region then those are the topics that will be prioritized."
37 years ago, Dr Henry Smith was the first PAHO representative in Belize, who laid the foundation for the expanded programme on immunization in the country. Today he spoke about how much has changed since he first started up the programme. From developing surveillance teams to screenings at the airport, Smith emphasizes that no matter how free a country may be of vaccine-preventable diseases, there is still the risk of importation at ports of entry.
Dr Henry Smith, Former EPI manager, PAHO
"When I started in 1977 There were 19 countries of the Caribbean that I was coordinating the immunization programme for. Prior to that I worked in the smallpox eradication programme which eradicated smallpox from the world. I served in Bangladesh in the small pox programme as well as India and the contingent of Africa, and because of the successful eradication of smallpox; eradication means eradicating the disease from the entire world, I was transferred from that programme to come to the West Indies to the Caribbean. And there I met Dr Ciro de Quardos God bless his soul who wanted me to work with him for what was to be the EPI, Expanded programme on immunization."
"So what I'm trying to say is although we have achieved the immunization status the disease is not present in the community anymore in Belize, there will still be imports. And because there are importations we have to have a strong surveillance system very effective to detect cases before they spread again in our communities. And I think that is where we are at the moment. We have to be trying to continue to increase immunization coverage so in the event that a disease or measles or polio myelitis is imported into the country we have the vaccination coverage that will prevent the disease from spreading in the country."
A total of 25 countries, and territories, numbering up to 60 participants attended today's opening ceremony.
