PAHO urges Caribbean to urgently step-up routine vaccination programme
Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), has urged Caribbean and other American countries to urgently ramp up routine vaccination programs as the risk of disease outbreaks in the region reaches a 30-year high due to a decline in vaccination coverage.
While the Americas was the first region in the world to eliminate polio in 1994 and has historically been a world leader in disease control and elimination, “national immunization programmes have suffered numerous setbacks over the last decade,” Dr. Barbosa stated during a media briefing today.
Inadequate long-term funding for immunization and a rise in vaccine hesitancy due to disinformation, he added, were among the key drivers of the reduction in coverage, which was worsened by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
According to PAHO, the Americas region has the world’s second lowest vaccine coverage, with an anticipated 2.7 million children not receiving all of their vaccine doses by 2021, leaving them without full protection against diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough.
According to the report, two nations, Brazil and Mexico, account for more than half of the region’s youngsters who have never had a vaccine.
Dr. Barbosa warned that failure to adequately administer and maintain routine immunization coverage leaves children “vulnerable to diseases such as polio, tetanus, measles, and diphtheria.”
In the run-up to Vaccination Week in the Americas, which runs from April 22 to 29, the PAHO head urged governments to step up efforts to “recover the vaccination coverage rates that protected us in the past.”
Dr. Barbosa described Vaccination Week in the Americas as “an extraordinary strategy to complement the efforts of national immunization programs,” which has helped to safeguard more than one billion individuals of all ages since its start 20 years ago.
This year’s theme is “Get up to date #EachVaccineCounts,” with the goal of reaching more than 92 million people in the region with life-saving vaccines.
According to Dr. Barbosa, PAHO’s commitment to boosting national vaccination programs does not end with these gatherings.
He stated that the organization will continue to collaborate with regional countries, technical partners, and donors to strengthen and modernize national immunization programs, improve and reinforce cold chain operations, and implement innovative approaches to address the challenges posed by the pandemic.
Dr. Barbosa also stated that PAHO is supporting vaccine production through its Regional Platform to Advance the Manufacturing of COVID-19 Vaccines and Other Health Technologies in the Americas, and that the organization is already collaborating with Sinergium Biotech in Argentina and the Bio-Manguinhos Institute (FIOCRUZ) in Brazil on the regional development and production of mRNA-based vaccines.
“Our first line of defense against outbreaks is national immunization programs.” However, we can all do our share to safeguard ourselves and our loved ones. And we can begin by receiving all of our vaccinations during Vaccination Week in the Americas,” Dr. Barbosa stated.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 2.7 million children under the age of one did not receive all of their diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough vaccine shots by 2021.
According to PAHO, the Americas had the second highest recorded vaccination coverage in 2010. According to the report, national immunization programs in Latin America and the Caribbean prevent around 174,000 deaths in children under the age of five each year.