As the Virgin Islands (VI) prepare to observe Vaccination Week 2019, residents are being cautioned of the risks involved with vaccine hesitancy as measles is making comeback on the global scale. Photo: UNICEF

Vaccination Week will be observed from April 20 to 27, 2019, under the theme “Protect your Community, Do your Part.” Photo: GIS

In a public missive, Manager for the Expanded Programme on Immunization, Ms Marina Bedeau via a BVI Health Services Authority Report, said that Vaccination Week is used as an opportunity to educate and promote the benefits of vaccination and to encourage more people to get vaccinated.

Vaccine Hesitation 

“We are currently seeing the re-emergence of measles because persons have been hesitant to vaccinate,” Ms Bedeau said.

She further added that “In 2016 the Americas and the Caribbean were declared free of measles.  We have since lost that certification since the measles outbreaks in the Americas, the UK, Venezuela and Bahamas.”

According to Ms Bedeau, activities are planned to reach those persons who do not attend clinics and give them an opportunity to be vaccinated. She added that persons can avoid contracting the disease by getting vaccinated.

“If you are not vaccinated it means that your immune system will attract the virus easily and you can transmit the infection or disease, to others causing an outbreak. We do not want to have an outbreak in the BVI, our last indigenous case measles was recorded in 1990,” she stated.

Get Vaccinated

According to the release, “Persons are encouraged to participate in Vaccination Week activities and learn more about vaccine-preventable diseases and better understand the importance that vaccination plays in healthcare management,” through several public initiatives.

Vaccination Week will be observed from April 20 to 27, 2019, under the theme “Protect your Community, Do your Part.”