His Excellency Dr. Hussein Abdel-Rahman Al-Rand, Assistant Undersecretary of Health Centers and Clinics Sector, emphasized that the National Immunization Programme plays significant role through creating a broad preventive umbrella to boost immunity of the whole community, particularly, school students against vaccine preventable diseases.
Dr. Al Rand’s opening remark for the workshop which was organized recently by the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) in coordination with the Ministry of Education as part of 2019 World Immunization Week. The workshop aims to shed more light on the importance of vaccines and their vital role in protecting the health of community.
In this context, Dr. Al-Rand stated that the UAE has developed a mandatory immunization schedule for children to cover them from birth till grade elven. Also he reassured schools’ principals that all vaccines are currently in-use must undergo extensive quality check examinations and studies to ensure their safety.
No Connection Between Children’s Vaccinations and Autism
The Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health and Prevention refuted the allegations of the international studies, the latest one was conducted in 2013 by a group of researchers at the American Infection Control Centre and concluded that all these claims are completely untrue.
Coordination between Both Ministries
Dr. Al-Rand pointed to the importance of the integrated role between MoHAP and Ministry of Education in terms of providing the best preventive and medical service to the students, addressing that MOHAP is providing vaccines at 69 Health Care Centres in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, in addition to 9 Preventive Medicine Centre.
“This comes as part of MoHAP’s strategy to provide comprehensive and integrated healthcare services in innovative and sustainable ways to ensure the protection of society from diseases, as well as to achieve sustainable development goals and universal health coverage,” Al-Rand noted.
The workshop was attended by: Dr. Laila Al-Jasmi, Head of the Immunization Section, Dr. Najla Sajwani, Head of the School Health Section and Dr. Mohammed Zahran, Public Health Specialist.
The workshop targeted schools’ principals to strengthen the joint role between the schools’ staff and health workers to increase vaccines coverage rate as part of the National Immunization Programme and the Programme of Health Vaccinations at Schools.
Also, the event included a lecture about importance of vaccinations and a panel discussion to discuss any concerns related to raising awareness about the vital role of vaccines.