The Ministry of Public health announced this Wednesday that it will intensify the diphtheria vaccination in the border area, with the aim of avoiding outbreaks of this bacterial disease.
So far in 2023, the country has been notified 12 cases of diphtheria, six detected in Dominican citizens and the remaining six in Haitian nationals. The Dominican cases were later discarded.
The information was offered by the Vice Minister of Collective Health, eladio perezand the director of Immunopreventibles for Vaccines, Aida Lucia Vargas.
“Given the situation we have, it is going to expand at the border, due to the epidemiological and social situation in Haiti, a more intense vaccination is already planned in that area, which includes the migrant population living in that area”Vargas specified.
“We do not qualify by nationality, but by people who live in the Dominican Republic”he added.
Vargas explained how the vaccination scheme works and affirmed that if it is followed to the letter, the baby begins to obtain immunization from the moment it is in the mother’s womb and later with the vaccine
.
“We have 90% coverage of the target population, which are children under one year of age”guaranteed the official.
Location by provinces
Dr. Vargas confirmed the existence of “12 reported cases, of which six have been Dominicans and the others Haitian nationals. The Dominicans were all discarded”.
The areas where suspected patients have been reported are: St. Peter’s, St. Christopher’s, Peter Brand, Barahona and Independence.
According to the data provided by Vargas, in 2018, 40 cases of diphtheria were reported in the country; ten in 2019; 61 in 2021 and 19 patients reported in 2022.
Currently, “the suspected cases are Haitian nationals, we do not have Dominicans affected or suspected by diphtheria”assured the galena.
When questioned about the official number of deaths from diphtheriaVargas said: “We are waiting for confirmation of the cases… we have the notification of the four-year-old girl who died in Duvergé.”
There are no infected Dominicans
For his part, Vice Minister Pérez said that the important thing is to “analyze the distribution of the outbreak, firstly they are children, but secondly, what is the most important thing? The nationality, they are Haitian people”.
“This is a consequence of the Haitian situation. At the moment, We do not have infected Dominicansconfirmed by the laboratory, we do not have any Dominicans, ”emphasized the epidemiologist.
Pérez indicated that, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), vaccination coverage in Haiti is around 60% and that unlike the Dominican Republic, where the vaccines through the Revolving Fund, in that nation the vaccines they are donated.
“We do not discriminate and they refuse to receive vaccinationsPerez concluded.
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Diphtheria is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheria, which mainly infects the throat and upper respiratory tract, producing a toxin that affects other organs.
