Health Ministry to Ramp up Coverage for MMR

The Ministry of Health will begin a Measles Mumps Rubella (MMR) immunisation campaign shortly, as it seeks to ramp up coverage for this vaccine, which is now at only 88 per cent.

This move comes as Jamaica seeks certification from the World Health Organisation (WHO) as having eliminated measles, rubella, and congenital rubella syndrome, this year.

Making the announcement at yesterday’s (Feb.1) Jamaica House press briefing at Jamaica House, Minister with responsibility for Information, Hon. Sandrea Falconer, said Cabinet has instructed that the Ministry of Education insist that children being admitted to early childhood institutions are fully immunised.

“Cabinet has instructed that short public service announcements must be used to translate messages on health, education, values and proper parenting,” she stated.

Director of Family Health Services in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Karen Lewis Bell, pointed out that Jamaica and the wider English-speaking Caribbean have been lauded for the success of their immunisation efforts. She said that Jamaica is one of the first countries in the world to establish an immunisation programme (September 1977) and eradicate certain diseases through vaccination.

She informed that in 1986, immunisation regulations were promulgated under the Public Health Act, following the outbreak of polio in 1982, and these regulations require all children under the age of seven years to be adequately vaccinated for entry to school, including daycare facilities and nurseries.

Through these regulations, Jamaica was able to successfully eliminate a number of diseases, including poliomyelitis in 1982; measles in 1991; of rubella in 2000; while the last case of congenital rubella syndrome (infection in newborns that produces deafness, blindness and heart disease due to the mother being infected with the German measles), was in 1998.

Dr. Lewis Bell pointed out that although Jamaica had its last case of locally transmitted measles in 1991, the Ministry was challenged by importation of cases in 1998, 2008, and 2011.

“We established from very early, a very strong surveillance system, so that we can detect very early, any of these vaccine preventable diseases that we have already eliminated,” she assured, adding that the country’s general immunisation coverage has improved over the years, and is now at 94 per cent.

However, the coverage for MMR vaccine is lagging behind, and the Ministry is pulling out all stops to have more children vaccinated, in light of the fact that Jamaica, along with all the other countries of the Americas, is seeking certification from the WHO as having eliminated measles, rubella, and congenital rubella syndrome this year.

“In fact, Jamaica has prepared our country documentation of our evidence to say that we have eliminated those diseases last year, and we have submitted it to the commission, which will review it and determine if we are eligible for certification,” Dr. Lewis Bell said.

She stated that it is therefore very important for the Ministry to ensure that there is adequate protection of the population against measles. “Certification of elimination doesn’t mean that we can’t have imported cases. What it means for us is that our population immunity and our surveillance system and our immunisation programme have to be strong enough to be able to detect very early, any imported cases, and to be able to put in place control measures to prevent local transmission,” she pointed out.

Dr. Lewis Bell said that some of the reasons for low MMR coverage are the continued myth that the vaccine causes autism in children. She said that there has been no scientific evidence to date, to prove that association, and in fact, the United Kingdom (UK) doctor, who started that discussion globally, has been struck off the medical register in the UK, and the journal that published his paper had to recall the document and apologise for publishing it.

Another challenge, Dr. Bell said, is that while in the first nine months of a child’s life, there are regularly scheduled visits to clinics to monitor growth and development, and vaccination, the MMR vaccine first dose is given at age one, with the second dose at age 4 to 6 years. “So sometimes we feel that maybe parents don’t remember the appointments, and it’s difficult to find them…so we feel this may be an issue for the coverage of the MMR,” she contended.

By Alphea Saunders, JIS Senior Reporter