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Haiti’s Prime Minister Dr Jack Guy Lafontant, and the Minister of Health, Dr Marie Gréta Roy Clément, met with a high-level delegation from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to discuss the national immunisation programme.
Credit:Gavi/2017/C. Da Silva
Geneva, 23 August 2017 - Gavi and Alliance partners including UNICEF, PAHO/WHO, the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) welcome Haitian Prime Minister Dr Jack Guy Lafontant’s commitment that the country will fund vaccines and increase efforts to improve routine immunisation coverage.
“Political will is a critical driver for improvements in the immunisation programme,” said Anuradha Gupta, Deputy CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “We are very encouraged by Haiti’s new leadership and by the resolve shown by the Prime Minister to strengthen vaccination services in Haiti.”
According to WHO and UNICEF estimates, in 2016 Haiti had 58% coverage for Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis vaccine (DTP3), the lowest rate in the Americas. While the country remains polio, measles and rubella free, recent outbreaks like diphtheria show the potential consequences of weak vaccine coverage. Significant inequity across provinces, districts as well as urban and rural areas also need to be addressed to reduce under five child mortality from 69 to 25/1,000 by 2030 and thereby reach the Sustainable Development Goal for Health (SDG).
"The Prime Minister's commitment also encourages Gavi and partners to further scale up support to the country", said Anuradha Gupta. “In the near future, we hope that Haiti will further prioritise investments in health to advance Universal Health Coverage so that all Haitians can have access to quality health services including immunisation."
During a high-level visit to the country last week, Gavi and Alliance partners reiterated their strong commitment to support Haiti’s health system and immunisation programme. They agreed to support the country with a community health worker strategy that will enable the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) to reach all Haitian children and reduce inequities. Partners are also prepared to support the government to transition its access to PAHO’s Revolving Funding from external to national resources for the supply of traditional and new vaccines beginning in 2018.
Media contact
- Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance - Frédérique Tissandier, ftissandier@gavi.org +41 (0)79 300 8253
- UNICEF - Cornelia Walther, cwalther@unicef.org +509 37 87 18 22
- PAHO/WHO - Tania Seburyamo, seburyatan@paho.org +509 44 05 4363
- World Bank - Anurgraha Palan, apalan@worldbankgroup.org
- USAID - Amy Fowler, afowler@usaid.gov +1571.551.7353
- CDC Amy Rowland, isc4@cdc.gov +1678-332-9601
Haiti’s Prime Minister Dr Jack Guy Lafontant, and the Minister of Health, Dr Marie Gréta Roy Clément, met with a high-level delegation from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to discuss the national immunisation programme.
Credit:Gavi/2017/C. Da Silva
Geneva, 23 August 2017 - Gavi and Alliance partners including UNICEF, PAHO/WHO, the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) welcome Haitian Prime Minister Dr Jack Guy Lafontant’s commitment that the country will fund vaccines and increase efforts to improve routine immunisation coverage.
“Political will is a critical driver for improvements in the immunisation programme,” said Anuradha Gupta, Deputy CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “We are very encouraged by Haiti’s new leadership and by the resolve shown by the Prime Minister to strengthen vaccination services in Haiti.”
According to WHO and UNICEF estimates, in 2016 Haiti had 58% coverage for Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis vaccine (DTP3), the lowest rate in the Americas. While the country remains polio, measles and rubella free, recent outbreaks like diphtheria show the potential consequences of weak vaccine coverage. Significant inequity across provinces, districts as well as urban and rural areas also need to be addressed to reduce under five child mortality from 69 to 25/1,000 by 2030 and thereby reach the Sustainable Development Goal for Health (SDG).
"The Prime Minister's commitment also encourages Gavi and partners to further scale up support to the country", said Anuradha Gupta. “In the near future, we hope that Haiti will further prioritise investments in health to advance Universal Health Coverage so that all Haitians can have access to quality health services including immunisation."
During a high-level visit to the country last week, Gavi and Alliance partners reiterated their strong commitment to support Haiti’s health system and immunisation programme. They agreed to support the country with a community health worker strategy that will enable the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) to reach all Haitian children and reduce inequities. Partners are also prepared to support the government to transition its access to PAHO’s Revolving Funding from external to national resources for the supply of traditional and new vaccines beginning in 2018.
Media contact
- Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance - Frédérique Tissandier, ftissandier@gavi.org +41 (0)79 300 8253
- UNICEF - Cornelia Walther, cwalther@unicef.org +509 37 87 18 22
- PAHO/WHO - Tania Seburyamo, seburyatan@paho.org +509 44 05 4363
- World Bank - Anurgraha Palan, apalan@worldbankgroup.org
- USAID - Amy Fowler, afowler@usaid.gov +1571.551.7353
- CDC Amy Rowland, isc4@cdc.gov +1678-332-9601