 and welcome to HealthFocus, a production of the Ministry of Health and Wellness. I am Fenel Neptune. Every year, St. Lucia joins in celebrating vaccination week in the Americas and of course, it is important that we place a focus on vaccination. Today, we have with us the Assistant Principal Nursing Officer, who's also the Immunization Manager, Tecla Jabatis, who will speak with us on vaccination. Welcome to the program. Thank you. Before we go in depth in the conversation as we list the vaccination, can you tell us what are vaccines? Vaccines really are either killed or weakened from the virus or bacteria, which when given into the body, actually trains the body to respond to first identify the virus or the germ and then respond to it if the body becomes infected, if the body, if someone becomes exposed. Because as you know, we live in an environment and we get exposed to bacteria, we get exposed to germs because it's all around us. So when somebody receives a vaccine, it creates sort of a memory. So the body remembers that germ or that virus. And if the body were to encounter it again another time, then the body would respond to it. And all of that is to help prevent us from getting sick or even dying in the whiskey scenario. Okay, so you mentioned a little bit as to how the vaccine works in terms of it getting into the body. But why vaccination, the process of vaccination so important for us here in St. Lucia? Vaccination is very important to us. Vaccination is probably one of the most cost effective public health strategy, one of the most effective preventative strategies. This is very important because for many reasons, one to provide that protection of our citizenry, of our population from infectious diseases that could cause increased mobility and mortality, death and illness in our population. Of course, you know, with increased death and illness in a population that raises your burden of disease, all of that too can have implications on our economy. St. Lucia especially is, I mean, is highly dependent on tourism and the ever-present risk of having infectious diseases coming into the country such as measles, you know. This risk is always there. And it is important that persons are immunized to protect themselves and of course the population at large from these infectious diseases that could be very detrimental to not just us but the economy and the whole. Okay, so you spoke in terms of how it helps with the economy as a whole. But we know vaccination has been around for quite some time. Can you speak on the history? What are some of the challenges and successes for St. Lucia as it relates to vaccination? St. Lucia's immunization program started way back in 1977. At that point, very early in the program when it started, we started off very, with just a few vaccines. At that point as a matter of fact, it was just BCG, DPT and polio vaccines that were administered. But as the program grew over the years, newer vaccines were introduced. First with measles and then you had the measles containing vaccines like the MMR. Today we have had many other vaccines introduced into our program. Some of the later ones include the hepatitis B vaccine which is given at birth and also the human papillomavirus vaccine that we introduced to our grade six boys and girls. All of this as a cancer prevention strategy. The program has grown over the years. Initially when the program started, we saw coverages of about 40%. But over the years, we've seen significant increases of vaccine coverages up to the recommended 95% and over, especially in our primary doses. As anything else, the program does have its challenges and we continually monitor and evaluate the program year after year, identify our gaps, identify any challenges that we have, and put together strategies to address those challenges. For us in St. Lucia, our coverages in our primary doses, and I speak of our children under one year, we continually meet the recommended 95% and older. However, as the children get a little older, we note a decrease in the coverages. So the children over one year and over fives, you know, up to five years, we note that decrease. But I must say that it's a continuous improvement process. This has existed over the past, let's say five to 10 years. But over the years, we do see results of our efforts. So these coverages, which were down to maybe like in the 60s, 60, 70%, we see increases up to about 80%. So we are confident that persons in St. Lucia understand the importance of vaccine. They see the importance of having the children vaccinated. And of course, they are coming forward. We continue to track our defaults because it's very important that especially our under five population that they are covered and that their vaccination status is up to date. So we can definitely say, although there have been challenges, there have also been great successes with the vaccine. Definitely, definitely. And we've seen these successes. I mean, St. Lucia has not had a case of measles since in the 1980s. I mean, we don't see polio. And it's because of a successful immunization program in St. Lucia. That is why many of us, you know, we can't even identify, except if we see it in books and we see it on the internet. I like you too. Sorry, but I like you to hold on to that thought because we are due for a break. We'll be back in a moment. Tired of battling large numbers of mosquitoes in the comfort of your home? The more you fight, the more defeated you feel. How about taking on a longer lasting solution? Ensure that drums or buckets are properly covered after each use. Drain and dispose of any unwanted containers to reduce potential breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Do not allow tires to collect water on your property. Fill them with soil to make your own vegetable gardens or plant flowers. Polydispose garbage can collect water. Use secure bins when disposing of garbage in order to reduce mosquito breeding. Keep vegetation low to allow daylight in and remove hiding places for mosquitoes and other pests. Check your roof gutters regularly to prevent mosquito breeding. Regularly inspect your property for signs of mosquitoes. Following these tips once a week can reduce the population of mosquitoes in and around your home. For more information visit or call the Environmental Health Division at 468-3700 or 468-3737. Welcome back. We will continue our discussion with Nurse Techno-Javatis on vaccination. Before we took the break you were speaking on measles and vaccination for measles in St Lucia given that we've not seen cases of measles for a very long time in St Lucia. Can you speak on that and also speak on what other diseases are these vaccines actually protect against? In our vaccination program there are a wide range of vaccines that are offered all of which protects against some some sort of disease. For example we have the BCG vaccine. BCG protects against tuberculosis and we we have the polio vaccine which protects against polio, DPT against dipheria, pertussis, tetanus and hepatitis B vaccine of course which protects from viral hepatitis and the human papillomavirus which you know as the HPV vaccine. As I said earlier I would have alluded to a little earlier in the discussion it does protect against HPV which is a cancer-causing virus here. Okay so you've spoken about the different diseases that it has protected against but for some persons they might say is it really effective? Is it safe? Can you tell us speak on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines on a whole? As it relates to the safety of vaccines in St Lucia, St Lucia through the Pan American Health we depend on pre-qualification from the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization for our vaccines and this has been from the time of the beginning of the vaccination program. Any vaccine that is introduced into our that is introduced to our population would have been pre-qualified for use by the Pan American Health Organization. It is on that basis that we know that whatever vaccines that we are introducing it is safe, it is of good quality and it is effective. I mean in terms of effectiveness I mean we have not seen a case of these infectious diseases, these vaccine preventable diseases in our population and it's all because of vaccination and an effective program as I would have alluded to earlier and of course we know the risk, we know there are still some vaccine preventive diseases that are still circulating and I go back to measles and we know we have lots of people traveling, we have lots of people coming into the island and we travel on whether it's business, whether it's pleasure and it is very important when travelers you know that especially if when we travel that our vaccination status is up to date so that we're not at risk of bringing in something into the country. Okay and with any vaccine there are side effects and how does the ministry go about actually monitoring those vaccines that they administer solutions? Yes so vaccines like any other medication does have side effects you know and when someone receives a vaccine it's not that they will but it's there's always that possibility that someone may experience a side effect and of course there are adverse events which is a more serious which is more serious and more and puts an a little and lasts a little longer sorry but in terms of side effects of course we continue to monitor there is a monitoring system when someone receives a vaccine they are educated they are informed at the point of care that if they were to experience any side effect whether it's a rash whether it's typing in the chest whether it's a fever that has persisted over over over two or three days a very high fever whatever it is that they're experiencing that they need to notify the healthcare provider they need to notify the healthcare provider notify the nurse it could be either them or family member once we have been notified of course that would that that incident or that event as we would call it is reported to the next level which is the immunization manager it is reported to us at the national level we would collect adequate I mean detailed information surrounding the event and of course that involves the vaccine etc once this is done we would launch an investigation by the investigating team and all of that is to ascertain whether there's any causality with the any association between what the person is experiencing and the vaccine so yes there is a monitoring system in terms of our general vaccination program we do not we rarely have any of any serious events except in you know the fever the pain in the arm etc very mild very mild side effects that would resolve in a matter of two to three days okay thank you so much well we definitely have come to the end of the program I want to thank you so much for being here and for providing us with such valuable information on vaccination thank you so much you're most welcome on behalf of the entire production team I am Funnel Neptune thanks for watching until next time