Vaccination Week in the Americas officially ends today. Now in its sixth year, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) coordinated activity has pushed not only for infant immunization, but for older children and adults as well, to receive vaccines that would prevent them from contracting certain diseases. This year there was a new vaccine to add to the list, the HPV vaccine, which has created a huge controversy in the developed world.
Two vaccines — Gardasil developed by Merck and Company and Cervarix developed by GlaxoSmithKline – together protect those immunised against six strains of the human papilloma virus or HPV, the main cause of cervical cancer. These vaccines are mainly recommended for teenage girls, hence the controversy.
Parents and abstinence advocates believe that like educating girls about safe sex, vaccinating them against a sexually transmitted infection is tantamount to telling them that it is okay to have sex. Proponents of the vaccine, on the other hand, believe that allowing teenage girls to be vaccinated is in fact an act of love by parents. To them it is similar to having babies immunised against diseases that are sometimes fatal – as cervical cancer can be if it is not caught early enough.
The trouble is that the HPV vaccine has attracted stigma because it is associated with sex and sexually transmitted infections, topics that parents while they would like their children to be aware of them, they would much rather not expose them to.
Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy had announced earlier this year that Guyana would have access to the HPV vaccine. One hopes that this would be soon, if it has not happened already since cervical cancer is a major issue here. The yellow fever vaccine was also very topical this year, as the disease has been threatening populations in this part of the world.
For a number of years now, Guyana’s record on vaccinations, particularly the immunization of children, has been good and the Ministry of Health can be justly proud of this. In some areas immunization percentages are in the 90s and there are efforts ongoing to ensure that all Guyanese, particularly children are protected against vaccine-preventable diseases.
First launched in 2003 as an initiative of the ministers of health of the Andean Region, in response to a measles outbreak in Colombia and Venezuela, Vaccination Week in the Americas now has the support and participation of every PAHO member country in the Americas.
Around the world, a record 62 million children, adults and elderly people in 44 countries and territories throughout the Western Hemisphere were expected to receive free vaccines against leading infectious diseases this past week. There was also a parallel event ongoing in Europe. The effort is expected to prevent thousands of deaths and illnesses from diseases including measles, rubella, polio, tetanus, diphtheria, yellow fever, influenza, rotavirus, hepatitis B, and whooping cough.
The US Centers for Disease Control and its sister agency in Canada also support this annual initiative, which is key to ensuring that vulnerable groups have their necessary vaccines and are made aware of the danger of ignoring immunisation. These collaborations also ensure that vaccines are accessible to people in their communities, which would allow for immunisation to become part of their lifestyle.
