By Charminae George
“We’ve proved through the years that vaccines do save lives. We have observed that even during the Covid season, that after persons were being vaccinated the death toll started to be reduced and that is a fact.”
This was the comment given by Nurse Gretcene Quallis, Public Health Nurse Supervisor at the Clare Hall Health Centre, on the Observer AM show yesterday.
“When someone gets the vaccine, it means that something foreign enters the body. It is an antigen…Your body recognises it as something foreign, so it’s going to build up that resistance,” she explained.
World Immunization Week and Vaccination Week in the Americas run simultaneously in the last week of April. This year, WHO’s World Immunization Week is April 24-30, while PAHO’s Vaccination Week in the Americas is April 22-29.
Quallis commented about ingredients in vaccines.
“Vaccines go through certain stages. It is true when the vaccines are being manufactured that you will have some sort of substance. You have a minute amount of aluminium … it’s just a minute amount. It also helps to stabilise the vaccines,” she explained.
Aluminium is used in vaccines as an adjuvant – a component that boosts the immune response to the jab, allowing for lesser quantities of the vaccine and fewer doses. Aluminium adjuvants are used in vaccines such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, diphtheria-tetanus-containing vaccines, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and pneumococcal vaccines, but they are not used in the live, viral vaccines, such as measles, mumps and rubella.
Quallis compared vaccination rates in 2021 against the normal percentage in previous years.
“Antigua normally has above 95 percent coverage against all the antigens. And we went down during those times [in 2021] to 80-plus percent, and it’s all around the Americas,” she said.
To combat the current lower vaccination rates, Quallis listed a number of strategies that have been employed. They include community outreach efforts, home visits, extension of operating hours, and the development of relevant committees.
“We want to encourage persons to get your vaccine – get vaccinated,” she added.
