The reduction of the level of immunization of children causes “intense concern” warned yesterday Monday (25/4) the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) emphasizing that one child in four in Latin America and in the Caribbean has not been fully vaccinated against the most prevalent infectious diseases.
“In just five years, full vaccination coverage against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis fell from 90% in 2015 to 76% in 2020, in other words an additional 2.5 million children were not fully vaccinated,” she said. UNICEF in the press release he published.
“The drop in his percentage vaccination “It is a matter of great concern to the region,” said Gene Koch, director of the Panama-based UNICEF Regional Office. “Millions of children and adolescents are exposed to serious complications, even the risk of death, while this could have been avoided,” he added, according to the Athens News Agency.
According to UNICEF, Haiti and Suriname, where only half of children have been vaccinated for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, have the lowest immunization rates in the region. They are followed by Venezuela (60%), Bolivia (68%) and Ecuador (70%).
UNICEF reminds that these diseases always affect the region: the incidence of diphtheria from 5 in 2013 in the whole region approached 900 in 2018. Measles, more contagious, affected 23,000 children in 2019, from 500 in 2013.
Because the percentage of vaccination coverage has decreased
“There are many reasons for the decline in vaccination coverage,” Ralph Midi, a UNICEF specialist in maternal and neonatal health in Latin America and the Caribbean, told AFP.
“The environment has changed in the region in the last five years. “Governments have turned their attention more to other emerging health problems, such as the Zika virus, Tsikungunya and more recently the new coronavirus,” he explained.
Difficulties in vaccinating migrant populations and those living in isolated areas also spur, according to the same expert, on immunization campaigns.
Although the decline in vaccine coverage had begun long before the new coronavirus pandemic broke out, UNICEF said the situation was exacerbated by the closure or reopening of many primary health care centers caused by the current crisis, and many feared that from the new coronavirus if they went to the centers, according to Mr Midi.
UNICEF calls on governments in Latin America and the Caribbean to urgently restore and strengthen basic vaccination programs, campaigns to increase confidence in vaccines, and implement plans to increase immunization campaigns. populations.
Source: News Beast
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