Declaration of Nassau, closing Immunization Gaps

Rashaed Esson & Deandrea Hamilton

#TheBahamas, May 5, 2023 – A pledge to close the growing immunization gaps was signed by Caribbean country leaders during the staging of the 29th Special Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) held last week  in Nassau Bahamas; it’s being called:   The Declaration of Nassau.

“We commit ourselves to the pursuit of initiatives and targets to be implemented to achieve an improved health status of our populations within the next five years, emphasizing leadership, strategic planning, management, implementation and resource mobilisation in the context of health sector reform processes that are underway,” says Article 1 of the Declaration.

There are seven articles in all.

The Declaration of Nassau devotes Governments to make efforts to fortify the national immunization programs with evidence-informed interventions, which includes prioritizing immunity gaps among children (which was worsened by COVID-19), elderly people, pregnant women, persons with pre-existing conditions, health workers and those living in situations that makes them vulnerable to contracting certain illnesses.

Additionally, it calls on and encourages countries to keep strong the regional targets for the control and elimination of measles, polio, Hepatitis B, rubella, tetanus, bacterial meningitis and cervical cancer, and proffers the development of policies and strategies to address vaccine hesitancy and infodemics (misinformation and false information).

The Governments under the Declaration, signed on Thursday April 27th, 2023, are committed to ensuring that Immunization is paramount on the health policy agendas in the political eye and for long-term sustainable financing.

These actions are evidently necessary for the region as pointed out by Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO Director in his address at the meeting.

He said, there is “great risk” of the re-emergence of diseases which had already been eliminated from our region,” due to the decline in “Immunization coverage,” as further expressed by Dr. Karen Broome, Immunization Advisor for the Caribbean Subregion at PAHO.

To support the initiatives outlined on the Declaration, Barbosa referred to a collaboration between PAHO and the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), to use refunds from COVAX ( the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools [ACT] Accelerator,  a global collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable access to COVID19 tests, treatments and vaccines), to support routine vaccination for Member States.