The Madang Provincial Health Authority (PHA) has given the go ahead for the National Immunization Roll out following a successful awareness program that ended this week.
Director for Public Health, Dr. Martin Damen has advised that Madang will be in full swing starting tomorrow.
“We are starting tomorrow. The actual immunization will start for the whole province for the next two weeks.”
He said the program will roll out till the 5th of June and they hope to cover the whole province in one go.
He added that the awareness program went well for the province, with little to no hiccups and that the people were happy to hear that the roll out will commence tomorrow.
Meanwhile, he has also voiced concern over the lack of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) education in the Province, stating that due to manpower issues, they have yet to initialize their programs.
“It’s part of the Public Health Initiatives but with manpower issues, we have not been able to do that. We have our partners such as Marie Stopes, but they are more tailored toward family planning.”
He stressed that this is also a key area that needs to be addressed and there is a need to build capacity for the health workers to go out and work in the communities.
He believes that those working in the Public Health space, should also provide this community service by educating young people who would grow up to potentially become responsible adults.