(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Dr Mohammed Al Thani (centre), Director of Public Health; with Dr Hamad Eid Al Rumaihi, Director of the Health Protection and Communicable Disease Control Department, and Dr Soha Al Bayat, Head of Vaccination Unit at the Ministry of Public Health, with other officials during the Workshop on Effective Management of Vaccine at InterContinental Doha the City yesterday. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula By Fazeena Saleem | The Peninsula
Qatar aims to achieve hundred percent immunisation coverage within the next six years, in line with the 2017-2022 new National Health Strategy, says a senior official at the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH).
The new strategy, which is expected to be launched next week, will have nine goals set to be achieved related to communicable diseases. Three of the nine goals will be related to vaccination and they include sustaining high immunisation coverage, providing vaccinations for children, adults and travellers and quality management of vaccines.
To promote vaccination among adults and travellers, the Ministry will provide 160,000 vaccines during the upcoming Umrah and Haj season. 'The immunisation programme in Qatar has been always leading in the region.
We provide most of the vaccinations free for everyone. Now Qatar has a 99 percent immunization coverage. We want to reach 100 percent and achieving the remaining one percent is the most challenging, said Dr Sheikh Dr Mohammad bin Hamad Al Thani, Director of Public Health at the Ministry.
'We are looking forward to achieving 100 percent immunisation coverage as part of the new National Health Strategy."
Dr Al Thani added: "It may not take six years but it's part of our strategy. We make sure that everybody is protected by taking the vaccination properly and create awareness that vaccination is safe in Qatar as it is going through the correct procedure with quality management.
Dr Al Thani also said that the continuous immunisation campaigns by the Ministry has helped in preventing any outbreak of infectious diseases in the country.
He was speaking on the sidelines of a three-day training workshop on ‘effective management of vaccine' yesterday. The workshop aims to train healthcare providers on methodologies to be followed for proper storage and delivery of vaccines.
The training workshop is being conducted by World Health Organization (WHO) affiliated trainers from Oman and Kuwait to coincide with the World Immunization Week which begins today. It is marked annually in the last week of April and aims to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.
Dr Hamad Eid Al Rumaihi, Director, Health Protection and Communicable Disease Control Department at the Ministry, said, 'Effective vaccine management is one of our objectives in line with the new National Health Strategy. Our ultimate goal is to deliver effective and safe vaccines, assure proper storage and delivery of vaccination and have a correct stock management.
He also said that 17 primary healthcare centres provide vaccines for children as well as for adults and the new travel clinic at the communicable disease centre offers guidance for travelers.
Separately, speaking about the prevalence of MERS-CoV — Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus Dr Al Rumaihi said that the second confirmed case of the virus also has been discharged from the hospital.
'This year we had two cases and both have been discharged from the hospital. Due to proper management of the cases we have prevented any outbreak. But we are still working closely with research institutes to understand the situation in Qatar, said Al Thani.
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