Staff at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHPNT) have donated £2067 towards immunising expectant mothers and young children against tetanus.
As part of this year’s flu campaign, UHPNT took part in the UNICEF initiative to ‘Get a jab, give a jab’, which encourages staff to take up the option of the free flu vaccine and, in turn, help donate towards inoculating people in developing countries.
The amount of staff who received their jab this year has provided a donation of 24,000 tetanus inoculations, against a disease that kills around 34,000 newborns each year and damages the health of many more worldwide.
Kenneth Green from UNICEF, who wrote a thank you letter to trust staff who received their jab, said: “Everyone at UNICEF UK would like to thank you for taking part in Get a Jab, Give a Jab last winter. You raised an incredible £2067.
“UNICEF is working all over the world to immunise mothers and their children against tetanus. From Ethiopia to Papua New Guinea, we’re helping to prevent this disease being contracted, with 44 countries eliminating maternal and neonatal tetanus since 2000.
“The fact that you’ve all been immunised against flu is also fantastic so thank you so much for deciding to help children in danger at the same time.”
Bev Allingham, Deputy Chief Nurse at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, was also really pleased with the additional impact the scheme, funded by income the trust receives for the flu campaign, has had. “We are delighted with the increased numbers of staff who took up the option of their flu vaccine this year which, in turn, resulted in the fantastic contribution to help combat tetanus in developing countries.
“We are very pleased that our flu campaign has gone beyond making a difference at a local level here in the trust and I’d like to thank everyone that received their jab as not only does it protect them, it protects their families and our patients and visitors”.