Grenada pays its debt to PAHO

By Caribbean Medical News Staff

The Government of Grenada has paid its outstanding debts to PAHO (Pan-American Health Organization) according to Health Minister Dr Clarice Modeste-Curwen.

The government took a decision to pay outstanding debts owed to PAHO for the periods 2011 and 2012 that had gone unpaid by the previous Government, according to reports from the Health Minister there. Earlier this week the ministry of finance wired US$62,865.30 to the public-health agency.

According to the Health Ministry, the non-payment of this debt had disrupted plans by the Government to continue its preventative public health programmes on immunization.

According to reports in the Grenada Press, The goals of the EPI are: “to ensure full immunization of children less than one year of age in every district, to globally eradicate poliomyelitis, to reduce maternal and neonatal tetanus to an incidence rate of less than one case per 1,000 births.”

The program also states as an outcome, a decrease by half of the number of measles-related deaths that occurred in 1999 and to expand and extend its vaccination programmes and public health interventions across the Spice Isle.
“In other words, we are taking care of a backlog left for us. Also, it is important to note the crucial role that vaccines play in preventing infectious diseases such as measles, mumps, polio, and tetanus,” said Health Minister Dr Clarice Modeste-Curwen.

Health officials say the availability of these important vaccines is critical to the prevention of diseases outbreak in the country.

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