With few more days to start the mother and child health vaccination week, the Programme Manager, Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in Sierra Leone, Dr Dennis Marke has disclosed that Sierra Leone does not have vaccine against sleeping sickness.
He made this disclosure to Awoko in the wake of the discovery of a new vaccine that will reduce the high rate of infection from the tsetse fly which causes sleeping sickness through cattle, as well as when someone is bitten by the fly.
Questioned on why Sierra Leone does not have a vaccine against sleeping sickness, Dr Dennis Marke noted that the vaccine has just been discovered, and that in the not too distant future the ministry will collaborate with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) through the Agriculture Ministry to ensure that the vaccine is procured in order to start preventing both human and cattle against the disease which is caused by the tsetse fly.
With regards the meningitis, the EPI Manager confirmed that the vaccine is available and is part of the country’s routine immunization.
Dr Marke stated that over the years the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) provided free immunization against eleven vaccine preventable diseases which include tuberculosis, polio, rota virus diahorea, pneumococcal, yellow fever, measles, pentavalent diphtheria, whopping cough, tetanus, homophiles ‘B’, influenza, Hyperthysis ‘B’, and tetanus toxide for women of child bearing age.
The EPI Programme Manager noted that the rota virus was introduced last year, and presently the programme is working to introduce the Human Papilloma Virus vaccine to prevent cervical cancer.
He maintained that all vaccines are procured by Government in collaboration with UNICEF and the Gavi vaccine alliance, which are kept under a cold chain system down to chiefdom level.
The vaccines, he revealed, are supplied on request from the District Health Management Teams (DHMT) down to the Peripheral Health Units (PHUs).
Dr. Marke also outlined rehabilitation and expansion within the programme with support from Government, UNICEF, JICA and the World Health Organization (WHO).
On the Mother and Child Health vaccination week, Dr Marke noted that the second dose of measles vaccination will start during the exercise which should start on the 26th of November.
He said only one dose of measles vaccine is administered at nine months, and now the second dose will be administered at 15 months which will be an added advantage against the disease.
The EPI Manager urged that during the Mother and Child vaccination week, parents should endeavour to take their children for immunization and to continue with routine vaccination in the facilities available in their various localities.
By Ade Campbell
Wednesday November 18, 2015
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