Health ministry urges parents on immunisation

The ministry of health is urging parents and caregivers to ensure that their children are adequately immunized for the start of the next school year.



Acting Director of Family Health in the health ministry, Dr. Yvonne Munroe, said it is extremely important for children to be immunised.



She said Jamaica and the wider Caribbean have made tremendous inroads, in eliminating a number of diseases from the region and wish to maintain this status.



Dr. Munroe said immunisation is the number one defence against the reintroduction of these diseases.



She said if children are not vaccinated they run the risk of being exposed to diseases such as measles, rubella and polio, which have already been eliminated.



She said it is important for parents and other caregivers to visit health centers or medical practitioners, to check on the immunisation status of their children.



Vaccines also provide protection against diseases such as tuberculosis, whooping cough, tetanus and Hepatitis B.