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Health info session for Yap-bound CNMI delegation
The Division of Public Health and Services, the Public Health Emergency Preparedness, and Epidemiology Laboratory Capacity will advise Team CNMI on health issues before Yap’s Micronesian Games. (Jon Perez)
The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. will be holding a health information session for the CNMI delegation that will compete in the 9th Micronesian Games in Yap, the Federated States of Micronesia. The quadrennial Games kicks off on July 15.
The Division of Public Health Services and the Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Epidemiology Laboratory Capacity programs would host the session from 9am to 10am at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium inside the Oleai Sports Complex.
Mosquito disease prevention, vaccinations, food safety, reducing exposure to germs, and smart packing are the topics to be covered in the hour-long information session.
DPHS has advised the CNMI delegation—athletes, coaches, officials, and family members—to get vaccinated in order to be protected of the MMR (mumps, measles, rubella) virus. Children should get two doses of the MMR vaccine, first at 12 months and the second dose when they turn four years old.
Yap’s Department of Health Services has recently released a mumps alert advisory in May, a few months before the opening of the Micro Games, after the island experienced an outbreak of the said virus.
A third dose of the MMR vaccine was on the guidelines released by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention for any child or adult—even if they had already taken two doses of the vaccine—that is considered a high risk during an outbreak.
CDC’s travel advisory states that children 12 months or older, teenagers, and adults should have already had two doses of the MMR vaccine before traveling to an area that had a mumps outbreak. The vaccine should have been taken in between 28 days.
“Children 6 to 11 months of age traveling should get an MMR vaccine before departure then revaccinate with two more doses, one at 12 to 15 months and second four weeks later,” said a CHCC advisory.
For more information on the health session, call Keanna Villagomez at 234-8950 ext. 2018, while for the immunization program, call 236-8745 or 236-8709, 81 or 83.
