– countries to launch support programme

The Ministry of Health has received 10,000 doses of Yellow Fever vaccine from the Brazilian government.

Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy thanks Brazilian Ambassador Arthur Meyer. The vaccines are at right.

The vaccines were handed over on Wednesday by Brazil’s Ambassador to Guyana Arthur Meyer at the Ministry of Health on Brickdam.

Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy said the vaccines will serve the ministry’s immediate and near future needs. He said the ministry had gone to the Brazil Ministry of Health to ensure that it remained on the priority list to acquire vaccines and Guyana was honoured with the amount of vaccines that was bestowed on the country. Ramsammy said the donation of the vaccines was a demonstration of the relationship and growing friendship between the two countries.

He also said that the health ministries in the two countries have initiated a technical support programme on vaccination. The programme seeks to ensure that each Brazilian living in Guyana is protected by vaccination and that each Guyanese living in Brazil is also vaccinated. The programme is especially concentrated on distributing MMR (measles mumps and rubella) vaccines. The two countries have also collaborated to deal with other diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis which are part of an exhaustive list. Members of Brazil’s Vector Control Department have also volunteered their services, in Region Nine.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Meyer told the gathering that the donation of the vaccines was an attempt by his country to assist in whatever way it could, in the light of global warming and the many interior locations of Guyana. He said too that this was a pattern that will be hopefully continued.
The vaccines shelf life runs until 2010.