St. James Health Dept. Extends ‘mop up/catch up’ Campaign

The St. James Health Department has extended its ‘mop up/catch up’ campaign until August 2023 as the Ministry of Health and Wellness moves to get more children immunised.

Addressing the regular monthly meeting of the St. James Municipal Corporation on March 9, Medical Officer of Health (MOH) for the parish, Dr. Tanique Bailey-Small, said the campaign aims to get children immunised against preventable diseases such as polio, measles and tetanus.

“Our mop up/catch up campaign is focusing on our immunisation programme and we know that we have mandatory vaccines that are given to our children for vaccine preventable diseases, and most of these diseases are not endemic to Jamaica in terms of when we look at measles, tetanus and polio,” Dr. Bailey-Small explained.

“We are looking at capturing those children who should have been vaccinated but for some reason would have missed their appointments, [hence the name] mop up,” she continued.

She is encouraging parents and guardians to play their part in ensuring that children are immunised at the appropriate age levels.

Dr. Bailey-Small further noted that the department has been enlisting the help of schools and members of the wider community to urge parents to take advantage of the initiative.

Children in Jamaica must be vaccinated against the following preventable diseases – small pox, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, tetanus (lock jaw), diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella and congenital rubella syndrome, Haemophilus influenza type B, hepatitis B, and tuberculosis.

Since 1986, the Public Health (Immunisation) Regulations of the Public Health Act of Jamaica has specified that all children under the age of seven years must be adequately immunised before school entry.