The Ministry of Health and Prevention, MoHAP, yesterday (Monday), organized a workshop on the importance of the seasonal influenza vaccine, to raise awareness of the community and health workers at health facilities about flu, ways of prevention and the vaccine efficacy.
Held at Le Méridien Dubai Hotel, with participation of consultants and specialists in this field.
Full Coverage
In opening remarks, Dr. Nada Al Marzouqi said: “MoHAP pays great attention to the importance of developing the health system to face all the challenges and providing a full immunization coverage to protect community from the spread of diseases. One of these challenges is the seasonal flu in view of its health, economic and social burdens.
She emphasized MoHAP’s keenness to step up its awareness campaigns on influenza and ways of prevention and provide the community with adequate information about the importance of the vaccine to protect them from the complications of disease thus increasing vaccine coverage rates.
Sharing Experiences
“Such workshops are a good opportunity for sharing information and experiences, learning more about the latest international updates in the influenza vaccine, implementing practical plans to increase immunization coverage rates,” said Laila Aljasmi.
She added: “Seasonal flu is an acute viral infection, that spreads easily from person to person, hence the importance of getting vaccinated once a year. Vaccines are the best effective and successful interventions for the protection against flu. Additionally, it’s a safe vaccine that could be given at the age of six months and it’s highly recommended for pregnant women, the elderly and patients with chronic diseases”
A number of doctors, and technical and nursing staff participated in the workshop activities, where they discussed the recent updates on influenza prevention and the role of vaccination in curbing the prevalence of this disease.
Also, a particular focus was made on the role of awareness campaigns in highlighting the importance of flu vaccine, in addition to reaffirming that pregnant women have to get vaccinated against this disease, alongside with health-care workers and other high-risk groups.
Data Use
A panel discussion was also held on the sidelines of the workshop, where participating physicians reviewed the challenges that have been tackled to increase flu vaccine coverage rates, in addition to the importance of monitoring seasonal influenza by using data. The participating doctors stressed the importance of harnessing available data to track influenza epidemics through the National Influenza Surveillance System. The system was developed to collect nationwide data with the participation of all local health authorities and use it to assess the epidemiological situation and map out prevention and control plans.
Additionally, the workshop discussed the national experiences and MoHAP’s strategy in health care field to increase vaccination coverage.
It’s noteworthy that MoHAP has recently launched its annual campaign to raise community awareness about the importance of getting vaccinated against seasonal flu to protect them from the complications of this disease, and to provide vaccines to the targeted groups and community.