Specialists insist on the urgency of catching up on childhood vaccination schemes nationwide, as their lack of progress leaves this population exposed to diseases such as polio.
At the end of 2021, only between 56 and 86 percent of immunization coverage had been achieved in infants 12 to 35 months of age and 27.5 percent in 1-year-old boys and girls. The above second National Survey on Health and Nutrition 2021published by the National Institute of Public Health.
Since the end of 2020, international organizations have warned of the importance of resuming vaccination schemes, following the COVID-1 pandemic
Eduardo Arias de la Garza, specialist in pediatric infectious diseases, attached to the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Service of the National Institute of Pediatrics, reflected on the importance of vaccines. He said the goal of the Ministry of Health’s Universal Vaccination Program is disease control, by immunizing 95 percent of the population at risk.
“It is believed that if this percentage is reached, we can talk about healthy vaccination rates,” he said. However, you clarified that only the state of Nuevo León reaches this figure, while there are other states that barely reach 59% coverage.
Regrowth in poliomyelitis cases
The expert regretted that the vaccination deficit is leading to a resurgence of diseases such as polio. He recalled that although this disease has been eradicated in Mexico since 1990, it has re-emerged not only in Africa and Asia, where a total of 30 cases were recorded in 2022. Also in the United States, in July 2022, a 20-year-old man one year the disease was diagnosed.
According to the World Health Organization, polio mostly affects children under 5 years of age.
The Ministry of Health has carried out a risk analysis of a poliovirus outbreak at the municipal level. The results indicate that 47 per cent of municipalities are at high and very high risk of a new outbreak of the disease. While 31 percent of them are at medium risk and 22 percent at low risk.
Prevention through vaccination
Gregory López, medical director of vaccine at Sanofi Mexico, reports that polio is a disease that affects cells in the spinal cord causing paralysis and can be fatal. However, he assured that if action is taken in time it can be prevented with vaccination.
“We need to change the landscape and protect children from what we can protect them from, because it’s not just about polio,” he said.
In September of this year, the Ministry of Health launched the intense campaign of the hexavalent vaccine in children under one year of age. Which protects against six diseases: polio, tetanus, hepatitis B, diphtheria, haemophilus influenzae type B and whooping cough. The above with the aim of achieving maximum coverage against these conditions and preventing the return of polio to the country.
This application should be made at two, four and six months of age, plus a booster at 18 months. It is also available throughout the public health sector and is completely free.
