Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labour Hon. Cornelius de Weever will officially open the Mini Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) Meeting at the Sonesta Great Bay Beach Hotel & Casino on Thursday morning.
The welcome will be done by Secretary General drs. Jorien Wuite where she will welcome health officials from Aruba, Curacao, BES islands (Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba), the Netherlands, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Caribbean Epidemiology Centre from Trinidad & Tobago, and PAHO Washington Office.
On the first day the conference representatives will look at the results of a SWOT analysis that was carried out with respect to the constitutional change that took place within the Kingdom in 2010.
Statistical information related to the incidence of Hepatitis B/C and the HPV will also be presented by SLS St. Maarten Lab.
Country immunization program reports of the BES islands/Netherlands will be presented under the heading: "Challenges with interpretation of foreign vaccination records and obtaining records from non-English speaking Caribbean countries and others – best practices."
Other agenda points for the morning hours are country reports from Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten, and information about the Syndromic Surveillance in the Dutch Caribbean/the Netherlands PAHO/CAREC/Sint Maarten.
For the afternoon sessions, a presentation will be made about, surveillance challenges in preventing Measles, Mumps, Pertusis outbreaks in light of open borders.
Two other agenda points to be dealt with by health representatives are the introduction of and procurement of new vaccines in the Dutch Caribbean; and result of Measles and Rubella Verification and Elimination reports PAHO/CAREC.
Sint Maarten is the host and the organization and facilitation is being carried out by the Collective Prevention Services (CPS) of the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development & Labour.
The meeting will continue on Friday with the closing remarks being made by Secretary General drs. Jorien Wuite.