The Dubai Health Authority’s (DHA’s) primary healthcare sector held a workshop to mark this year’s World Immunisation Week campaign (April 24 to 30) which aims to highlight that protecting entire communities with vaccines protects everyone.
The theme of this year’s campaign is ‘Protected Together, #VaccinesWork’. Immunisation is one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions.
Dr Nahd Monsef, Director of the Health Affairs Department at the authority, said that the Authority has in place a robust immunization policy and follows the UAE National Children Immunization Policy, which provides free vaccines for children up to the age of five years across DHA health centres. Additionally, the Authority also provides a free extended immunization program across all private schools in Dubai for children until the age of 17 years. The Authority also has a dedicated traveler’s clinic where families can seek counseling and understand the necessary travel vaccines they need to take as well as the health precautions they need to follow based on the destination of travel. The Authority also has in place adult immunization programs including those for senior citizens and high-risk patients such as immunocompromised, patients with chronic diseases etc.
Dr Monsef added that the Authority provides reminders for families and very shortly the Authority will be updating their system for immunization that will not only benefit families, school nurses, healthcare providers but also it will provide the Authority with gold-standard data that can help device evidence-based public health policies and is also vital for tackling outbreaks.
Dr Monsef said the Authority has a stringent follow-up and reminder system to help parents ensure they stay on-track with their children’s vaccinations.
“We give parents a time period of two weeks and after that we consider them defaulters, then we send reminders to ensure they don’t miss their children’s vaccination.”
