School operators, parents and health care workers are among the group of people who can be held liable if they allow children to attend school who are not fully immunized for their age.
Director of Family Health Services in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Dr. Julia Rowe-Porter said children should not be registered for school until they are fully immunized.
According to the Immunization Regulations of 1986, any parent, guardian, health worker, principal or operator of a school who fails to comply with the law is guilty of an offence and can be fined for every child that is not adequately or fully immunized or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding 30 days.
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Parents Liable if Child Not Fully Immunized
School operators, parents and health care workers are among the group of people who can be held liable if they allow children to attend school who are not fully immunized for their age.
Director of Family Health Services in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Dr. Julia Rowe-Porter said children should not be registered for school until they are fully immunized.
According to the Immunization Regulations of 1986, any parent, guardian, health worker, principal or operator of a school who fails to comply with the law is guilty of an offence and can be fined for every child that is not adequately or fully immunized or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding 30 days.
Immunization is the process by which an individual is protected from acquiring a disease. When someone is immunized, he or she is given a series of vaccines which can be taken by mouth (orally) or injected. These vaccines help the body to fight diseases.
Under the Public Health Act of 1974 and the Immunization Regulations of 1986, all children under the age of 7 must be immunized before entry into school. These include Day Care, Nursery and other Early Childhood and Primary schools.
She said parents of children in Secondary schools should verify if their children have received all their vaccines. Children, who have not received all their vaccines, should be taken to the Government Health Centres or their private medical practitioners to be immunized before re-entering schools.
The Public Health Immunization Regulations of 1986 (Section 9) stipulates that persons authorised to admit children to schools should not admit any child without his or her immunization card. If the child is already admitted, he/she should not be permitted to continue, unless the parents produce the document.
The Family Health Services Director said children are the major target group for immunization because their immune system is weaker than that of an adult, however, she pointed out that some children cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.
Section 6 (1) of the Public Health Immunization Regulations of 1986 also says in part that where the child “…is not physically fit to be immunized, he [public immunization officer or a medical practitioner] shall issue a certificate to this effect and deliver it to the parent of the child.”
Section 6 subsection 2 goes on to say, “A certificate that a child is not physically fit to be immunized shall remain in force for three months, but shall be renewable for a like period from time to time until such time as the public immunization officer or the medical practitioner considers that the child is physically fit to be immunized.”
Dr Rowe-Porter said the target is to have 95% of children vaccinated with the rest being protected by what is a referred to as herd immunity, which is getting as many children as possible to be vaccinated and therefore protect those who cannot be vaccinated.
She said the target fell to about 80% in 2021 due to the COVID19 crisis but since 2023 the Ministry of Health and Wellness is getting back on track.
The last case of poliomyelitis was recorded in 1982, the last case of locally transmitted measles was in 1991 and diphtheria, pertussis, rubella and tetanus last surfaced up to 2001.
No child will be allowed in school unless he or she is immunized against:
