BRADES, Montserrat (November 30, 2010) – Montserrat has received first place in the Surveillance and Immunization Awards given by the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC).
Nurse Violet Brown, Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) Manager for the Ministry of Health accepted the award during the 27th Caribbean Meeting of EPI Managers held November 15 to 19 in the Cayman Islands.
Nurse Brown said she was “elated” at Montserrat winning the award, adding that it was another milestone that all should be proud of.
The annual Surveillance award was established to recognize countries that have performed outstandingly on the surveillance component of their programme during the previous year. The award is based on two main criteria, which are: on time reporting to CAREC and the ability of the country to achieve their national goals and targets for vaccine preventable diseases.
“The main diseases under surveillance are measles and polio. Montserrat has 12 sentinel sites reporting on a weekly basis to the epidemiologist for onward submission to CAREC,” explained Brown. The sentinel sites are the hospital laboratory, casualty, four health centres and the private doctors.
The award consists of a certificate and the inscription of the name of the country on a plaque that is kept by the winning country until the following year. Montserrat was third place in 2006 and second place in 2009 for the Surveillance Award.
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