Within the framework of Vaccination Week in the Americas, on April 26, Dr. Ana Carolina Sepúlveda Vildósola, Full-Time Professor at the UNAM School of Medicine, participated in the Discussion “Strategies to increase adherence to vaccination after the pandemic”, which was attended by national and international experts from different medical specialties and emphasized the importance of vaccination throughout life and in health personnel.
Dr. Sepúlveda Vildósola participated in a discussion table with Dr. Roberto Debbag, President of the Latin American Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Alicia Elizabeth Robledo Galván, President of the Mexican Academy of Pediatrics, moderated by Dr. Francisco Becerra Posada, former Deputy Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
The experts agreed that this issue is of great importance, since in recent years the child vaccination rate has decreased significantly worldwide. Recently, UNICEF reported an 18 percent decline in vaccination in the last decade, with Mexico in penultimate place. In the Latin American and Caribbean region, it is estimated that 2.4 million children do not have a complete basic vaccination scheme and 1.7 million do not have any vaccine, this means that 1 in 5 girls and boys do not receive the vaccines, especially the poorest and those who are socially marginalized.
In addition, Latin America went from having 93 percent of infants vaccinated just a decade ago, to 75 percent, which places it below the world average (83 percent). Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela are the countries with the largest number of unvaccinated minors.
Likewise, they highlighted that the importance of vaccination lies not only in the prevention of diseases, but also in their consequences, such as physical or mental disabilities that impact the future development of infants, their families, and the society in which they live. It is estimated that vaccinating a child with all the injections he needs costs about 58 dollars and its benefits are incalculable. However, vaccination is not exclusive to minors, it must continue throughout life, before or during pregnancy, for specific diseases and in health personnel.
The decrease in the vaccination rate is multifactorial, since personal factors intervene (anti-science or anti-system beliefs, distrust of its efficacy, not wanting to have the side effects of vaccination or that they consider that vaccines cause other diseases such as autism or infertility, the belief of DNA alteration, religious objections, among others), cultural and social (vaccines are only for children, conspiracy theories, ideological or political reasons, infodemic), or system (supply, access, distribution and application strategies of vaccines).
On the other hand, the confidence of the population in vaccines after the pandemic decreased in many countries such as Japan, Korea and Russia. In Mexico, it only increased by 2 percent, and what is also alarming is the proportion of doctors and health personnel who are not vaccinated (example: 60 percent against influenza in 2019-2020).
“Public health officials need to recognize and respect perspectives on vaccination policy, in order to design policies that support its success and acceptance. We must move towards the population demanding vaccination as their right to health. The awareness of the population and the education of health personnel are of great importance to restore confidence in vaccination and improve rates in all age groups and risk conditions. However, the academic programs of most of the faculties and schools of Medicine give little importance to the subject, limiting themselves to the subjects of Public Health, Pediatrics and Gynecology. Therefore, it will be necessary to reorient the academic programs towards preventive medicine and primary health care”, indicated Dr. Sepúlveda Vildósola.
2023-05-08 17:17:44
#Vaccination #life
