One in four children in Latin America and the Caribbean has not been fully vaccinated against the most common infectious diseases, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Monday, stressing that the decline in the rate immunization of children causes “intense concern”.
“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. UNICEF in its press release.
“The drop in vaccination rates in the region is a matter of great concern,” said Gene Koch, director of the Panama-based UNICEF Regional Office. “Millions children and adolescents “He is exposed to serious complications, even the risk of death, while this could have been avoided,” he added.
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.
“There are many reasons for the decline in vaccination coverage,” Ralph Midi, a UNICEF specialist in maternal and child health, told AFP. neonatal health in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“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 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 reduction in vaccine coverage had begun long before the onset of coronavirus pandemicUNICEF says the situation has been exacerbated by the closure or reopening of many primary health care centers caused by the current crisis, as well as the fear of many that they would be infected with the coronavirus if they went to the centers, according to 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.
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