Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Carissa Etienne says millions of children are missing out on routine vaccinations, putting countries at risk of losing two decades of immunization progress.

Speaking at a press briefing yesterday, Dr. Etienne said vaccination coverage has dipped extremely low.

She noted that several Caribbean countries are seeing outbreaks of diseases formerly under control.

She said routine immunizations are essential to avoid disease outbreaks that put children at risk.

Meantime, at least one parish in Jamaica has been seeing a falloff in immunization numbers.

Westmoreland has reportedly seen an increase in the number of children missing their immunization dates.

The parish’s public health services department coordinated an immunization drive at the Hatfield Early Childhood Institution on Tuesday, January 25, targeting students from zero to six years old from both the institution and the wider Hatfield community who had missed shots.

Public health nurse at the Savanna-la-mar health centre, Jacqueline Smith, noted that it is important that children within this age group be properly immunized as a preventative measure against childhood diseases.

She said the health department is specifically targeting children who should have received their measles-mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, booster DPTs, and the polio vaccine.

Miss Smith appealed to the parents of Westmoreland and wider Jamaica to get their children immunized on time, noting that the country is already experiencing the covid-19 pandemic and does not need another.

She added that children must be immunized to prevent the re-emergence of diseases that would have been eradicated some time ago.