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CATHERINE W GICHUKI
DOHA
The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) is urging parents to encourage their children in grade 10 at government and private schools to receive a diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (Tdap) vaccination during a campaign which will start on Sunday.
The campaign, which will run until March 15, is a booster vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis for the children.
Speaking on the sidelines of Tdap Vaccine Workshop on Wednesday, MoPH Director of Public Health Sheikh Dr Mohammed al Thani said,"There are no outbreaks of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis in Qatar because people were vaccinated during their young age. The few cases we registered were from outside the country."
He added that this vaccination will guard against the diseases for 10 years, keeping the tenth graders healthy between high school, university and the time they are starting to work.
"Booster vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis is a combination-immunising agent given by injection to prevent against those infectious diseases. The vaccine will boost and increase the protection that the child or adult had from an earlier dose for more than 10 years," he said.
Sheikh Dr Mohammed added that Qatar is introducing a wide spectrum of vaccines to cover more than 14 diseases and the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) is classified as one of the unique, updated and advanced immunisation programmes in the region and ranked in the same level as those programmes of the western countries."The coverage with vaccines included in the national schedule reaches its optimal targeted level. Nevertheless, it is still needed and highly recommended to conduct supplementary immunisation activities that target high risk groups from time to time such as this Tdap campaign," he said.
He said that the vaccine is safe and encouraged the parents to allow their children to get vaccinated.
"We urged families to encourage their children to get the vaccination. It is not compulsory but it is highly recommended. I didn't see any side effects of the vaccine," he said.
On his part, MoPH Director of Health Protection and Communicable Disease Control Department Dr Hamad Eid al Rumeihi said,"In Qatar, we haven't registered any local case of diphtheria, tetanus or pertussis in the last 10 years. However, we have registered imported cases, two diphtheria last year and two cases of pertussis in 2016. We confirmed that these four cases were imported and the patients had not been vaccinated against the diseases. This was the main reason why they got infected."
Rumeihi reiterated that if the population immunity is high, it will prevent any outbreak even if there is any case coming from outside to Qatar.
He added that as Qatar is approaching the FIFA World Cup 2022, it was important that the country had a strong immunisation system to prevent any outbreak.
"It is important now that Qatar aims to increase the number of tourists to Qatar. It is important to sustain our efforts so that we keep Qatar free from these diseases," he said.
According to Rumeihi, MoPH's aim is to keep Qatar free from the three diseases, adding that essential vaccinations are done from childhood, including at two months, four months, six months, 15 months and fifth dose during pre-school.
"Therefore, the dose that the 10th graders will receive will be the sixth which is a booster dose aimed at increasing immunity," he said.
He added that consent forms regarding the vaccination have already been sent to parents."We hope to reach more than 80 percent coverage. Our largest coverage was about 70 percent," he said.
The official further said that they are working closely with the school nurses.
