The Ministry of Health has started immunising thousands of front-line workers in the tourism industry against vaccine preventable diseases in preparation for an expected influx of tourists from disease-endemic countries during the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup 2007, which starts this month.

Medical officer of health at the St James Health Department, Dr Rao Ponnada, told the Observer that the programme, which began a week ago, is aimed at ensuring that all front-line workers who have not been immunised receive the relevant vaccines and that those who have been immunised can receive booster shots.

Dr Ponnada added that immigration officers and other workers at the airports will also be immunised.

“We are immunising the front-line workers against vaccine preventable diseases like measles, mumps and rubella in Jamaica,” he said. “We don’t have measles here, but last year there were some outbreaks in certain countries, so we are protecting our front-line workers, because most of the spectators are coming from endemic countries where there is measles and polio.”

Front-line workers include desk clerks, waiters, food servers, bus boys, bar staff, beach attendants and persons who transport tourists.

Meantime, Horace Peterkin, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), told the Observer that he supported the move since it will safeguard the workers. He said of the 32,000 hotel employees in the tourism industry, about 45% are front-line workers.

“I support it because we need to protect the persons in the industry, because there are people coming from all over the place,” said Peterkin. “While we have been pretty good at preventing these diseases in Jamaica, we are going to be exposed to people from outside, as was identified with the malaria outbreak that we have now. So we have to do what we can to protect our workers.”

Peterkin said the programme had already covered workers in Negril and would now target workers in Montego Bay. Yesterday, Dr Ponnada said that the ministry would concentrate on workers mostly in the western section of the island. However, he did not state when the programme would conclude.

The immunisation programme is just one of the health ministry’s initiatives to safeguard Jamaicans from infectious diseases in preparation for Cricket World Cup.

Last week, the ministry strengthened its screening for infectious diseases at both international airports in the island.

The ministry said it would set up health stations, to be manned by public health nurses, at the airports as part of its efforts to control the spread of communicable diseases to the island.

The ministry also fast-tracked plans to upgrade its hospitals in time for the tournament, which opens on March 11. Additionally, on Tuesday the ministry added 40 new ambulances to its fleet.