Immunization

Baghdad, 30 September 2019 – The Ministry of Health of Iraq, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, began the first phase of a polio national immunization days campaign on 29 September 2019 in Karbala in the south of Iraq. Senior officials of the Ministry of Health, acting WHO Representative in Iraq Dr Adham R Ismail Abdel Moniem and UNICEF Representative Ms Hamida Lasseko officially launched the 5-day campaign, which aims to vaccinate more than 2.6 million children under the age of 5 in 10 governorates countrywide. “Keeping Iraq polio-free remains a major priority for WHO and its partners. We continue to do everything we can to maintain this great achievement; this campaign is essential and critical to doing so, as well as to minimizing the risk of any potential importation of poliovirus in the country,” said Dr Adham Ismail. Vaccines are the safest and most effective way to protect children against preventable killer diseases, and the campaign is a ce...

OGDEN — Teachers and day care staff in Weber and Morgan counties will be required to provide documentation that they have received the immunizations recommended for adults, starting fall 2020. Teachers may also provide an exemption form declaring that they have chosen not to receive immunizations, said MaryLou Adams, nursing director for Weber-Morgan Health Department. Members of the Weber-Morgan Board of Health voted unanimously in favor of the new requirement at their meeting Monday. No one attended the public hearing on the regulation that was held Sept. 16 at the Health Department. The department did not receive any oral or written comments on the regulation in response to public announcements, Adams told the board. “It’s been a rule for the children for many years,” Adams said, “and so we just thought it would be a good idea to have ... all staff for the school districts plus the day cares (document immunizations) ... so that we can determine ... during the course of (a pote...

BANGUED, Abra, Sept. 30(PIA)--The Provincial Health Office (PHO) here has implemented School Based Immunization (SBI) in nearly all the public schools of all municipalities in the province. Mary June Algarne of PHO reported that the administration of SBI in the municipality of Boliney is still on-going. This as she continues to encourage parents to have their children avail of the government's free immunization service to ensure that they are protected against life-threatening diseases as they become adults. SBI is a strategy of the Department of Health to give another chance to children who have missed their scheduled vaccinations. "The rural health units of municipalities have administered the free vaccination among Grade 1 and Grade 7 students of public schools. They are given one shot each of Measles-Rubella (MR) and Tetanus and Diphtheria (TD) vaccine," she said. She assured that the doses given are safe, and will provide children and adolescents a guaranteed pr...

Californians strongly support a state law creating new oversight of vaccine medical exemptions for schoolchildren in a statewide poll released Monday, with backing across a spectrum of political affiliations, income and education levels, and geography. The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, conducted for the Los Angeles Times, found that 90% of Democrats, 82% of those with no party preference and 73% of Republicans supported the effort to increase immunization rates at schools and daycare facilities by allowing the California Department of Public Health to review and possibly reject a doctor’s determination that a child should skip all or some of their shots. Overall, 8 out of every 10 voters surveyed said they supported the new law, with 61% saying they favored it strongly. Just 16% said they opposed it. The strongest dissent came from participants in the poll who described themselves as very politically conservative — 1 out of every 3 of those voters said they opp...

AUGUSTA, Maine - Maine's governor says a grant from a foundation will help boost health insurance coverage in the state by improving enrollment assistance this year and next. Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, and the Maine Health Access Foundation say the $750,000 grant is coming from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. They say the money will also help fund outreach, marketing and consumer education.   Mills says the result of the push will be a campaign that encourages Maine residents to sign up for expanded MaineCare or insurance through HealthCare.gov.   Mills says the work will support outreach "to more Maine people to help them better understand their health insurance options and sign up for the coverage they need to live healthy lives and contribute to the growth of our state.'' https://ift.tt/2n48Cet

JAKARTA, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo said on Monday the government would review a plan to raise the cheapest premiums of the state health insurer by 65% starting this month, after meeting with trade union leaders opposing the measure. BPJS Kesehatan, which provides universal health coverage for over 200 million people, regularly books claims that far exceed premiums it collects and the burden of supporting one of the world’s biggest health systems carries a fiscal risk for Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati had announced the measure earlier this month to help cover some of the insurer’s cash deficit, which is expected to reach 32 trillion rupiah ($2.26 billion) this year. “We will reconsider because we have to calculate things,” Widodo said, speaking to reporters alongside two trade union leaders at the presidential palace in Bogor, West Java, according to a statement by the Cabinet Secretariat. Union members, who had ...

Vin Gupta, Opinion contributor Published 5:00 a.m. ET Sept. 30, 2019 Medicare for All is a low priority even among Democrats. The best health plans from 2020 candidates keep private insurance and add public options. Among the many patients of mine who suffer from chronic illness, nearly all tell me they value choice above all else in their health care decisions. Some spend much of their day crippled by weakness, the side effects of medications and the resulting depression that can so easily take root. The last thing they want is to compromise on what they hope to retain some control over: choice of provider, the ability to seek a second opinion or to get an appointment within a desired time frame. The sickest crave simplicity, and while nothing is perfect in American life, the private health insurance industry gives people choices they otherwise would not have. It gave the mother of two young children whom I recently cared for, dying from a serious bacterial infe...