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Grenada’s government has expressed concern about declining vaccination rates among children, and it’s encouraging parents to help rectify the situation.
Former Health Minister Clarice Modeste says the decline is occurring at an appalling rate, with the usual vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella no longer a priority for parents.
She says “we have forgotten seeing our children suffering from these things, but the reality is, if we do not pick up and pick up soon, these things instead of COVID-19 could become the order of the day…all of these things that we had completely eradicated”.
Health Minister Nicholas Steele confirmed the rate of childhood vaccination has fallen by more than 30%.
He says the reduction did not start with COVID-19 but sometime before, due to misinformation spread on social media.
Grenada’s Public Health (School Children Immunisation) Act requires the immunization of all school children under 13 years of age against communicable diseases. The diseases named in the legislation are Diphtheria, Pertussis (Whooping cough), Tetanus, Measles and Poliomyelitis. However, the law provides for the Minister of Health to amend the list.
The law also states that “notwithstanding any law to the contrary, but subject to the provisions of this Act, no child shall be admitted as a pupil to a pre-primary school, primary school, private school or all-age school unless he or she produces to the principal thereof a certificate of immunization with respect to every communicable disease.”
Exemptions are allowed on medical and religious grounds.
