CELAYA, Gto.- (OEM-Informex).- The pandemic caused by Covid-19 has caused a significant setback in childhood vaccination, said Daniel Gregory López Rodríguez, medical director of vaccines at Sanofi Mexico, and said, according to With data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, during 2020 a total of 23 million children worldwide did not receive basic childhood vaccines, meaning that “by decreasing immunization coverage, children under 5 are more likely to become infected and develop disease.”
HISTORY: POLIO
In particular, he highlighted the issue of poliomyelitis, a term that was used for the first time in 1873 by the doctor Adolf Kussmaul. The first cases in Mexico, he said, appeared in 1946 with a total of 247 and in 1966 there were 1,024 cases.
“At that time the prevention strategies, before vaccines, were to wash hands, avoid public places and there was a blood donor campaign to produce gamma globulins. During this period, 25,000 patients met and 100,000 doses were applied as very short-term protection, so it could not be controlled.
He recalled that the first vaccines arrived in 1952, but in Mexico the first was produced until 1956 and 250,000 children were vaccinated. In 1957, the first oral vaccine was created, and by 1968, more than five million children could be vaccinated, which represented a vaccination coverage of 90%, which helped reduce cases by 58%.
He also recalled that the last case of polio reported in Mexico was recorded in 1990 in Culiacán, Sinaloa, while in the Americas the last case was recorded on August 23, 1991 in Peru. In 2018, the reduction of this disease was 99% worldwide, thus only 33 cases were recorded in two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan with type 1.
OUTBREAKS HAVE EMERGED AFTER THE PANDEMIC
He pointed out that vaccines have prevented more than 18 million cases of paralysis, however, type 2 outbreaks have emerged since the pandemic in populations where vaccination coverage is low.
“Since the week of November 23, four environmental samples have been taken in Algeria; in Chad four cases were recorded; in the Democratic Republic of Congo three cases; two cases were recorded in Ethiopia; while in Nigeria four cases and two environmental samples were recorded in water.
He also commented that with low immunization coverage and a growing susceptible population, there is an increased risk of poliovirus outbreak and spread in the Americas region.
“In 2021, third-dose coverage against polio OPV or IPV (Polio3) greater than or equal to 95% was not achieved in 32 countries and territories in the Americas region, and 15 countries had coverage below 80%. The detection of CVDPV2 in the United States is an event with a moderate risk of spread because this country has a robust and sensitive surveillance system.
“However, in the Americas region there are countries with weak surveillance of EPVS, including polio, which in turn increases the risk of missed cases or outbreaks in a timely manner, mainly in vulnerable populations such as indigenous, migrants, among others , which is a challenge for vaccination field teams. Due to the above, the risk of polio cases or outbreaks and its subsequent regional spread is high.
Given this scenario, he said that as long as there is only one child infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio, which is why he recommends improving vaccination coverage, as it reduces cases by 90%, and preventing no one suffers or dies from a vaccine-preventable disease.
NATIONAL COVERAGE
On the other hand, Eduardo Arias de la Garza, a physician attached to the Pediatric Infectious Disease Service of the Institute of Pediatrics, said that according to data from the 2021 National Survey on Health and Nutrition (ENSANUT), coverage at the by biologics ranged from 86.6% to 56.7%, being highest for Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), which prevents tuberculosis (TB), and lowest for hepatitis B.
He mentioned it 27.5% of the one-year-olds had the full vaccination schedulewhile 31.1% were children up to two years, which means that in 2021 the coverage was 53.9%.
He added that the percentage of children who received three doses of the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine (DPT3), considered a marker of vaccination coverage nationally and internationally, decreased by 5% between 2019 and 2021 , standing at 81%.
In the case of poliovirus, he said in February 2022 Malawi announced its first case in 30 years. “A 3-year-old girl who was paralyzed after being infected with a virus that appeared to come from Pakistan. Pakistan itself has reported 14 cases, eight of them in just one month this spring.”
Likewise, he indicated that according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, it is recommended that when taking the minor to be vaccinated and to solve the problem of increasing the number of injections during a single clinic visit, it is preferable to use acellular vaccine products .
The benefits, he said, are that they are less additive, are less expensive to administer, require less storage space, have fewer injections, are more accepted by parents, account for less childhood trauma, and also reduce local reactions. , reduces pain and discomfort, reduces wasted time and productivity, and saves money.
VACCINATION CAMPAIGNS FOR HEALING
He indicated that the first stage of the National Vaccination Campaign for children under one year has begun with the hexavalent vaccine that protects against poliomyelitis, pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type b, diphtheria, tetanus and hepatitis B.
In this phase, he specified, it was intensive and took place from 5 to 30 September in all the medical units of the public health services. Finally, another breakthrough followed from October 1 to November 30, while the final one will last until the end of 2022.
With the latter, he said, “the Ministry of Health plans to successfully inoculate 2.1 million newborns in their first year of life with the three necessary doses of the hexavalent vaccine, through an operational strategy divided into three phases: Two, four and six months, plus a booster at 18 months of age.
VACCINATION CAMPAIGNS FOR HEALING
“The latest vaccination strategy is the annual influenza vaccination campaign for the uninsured population, which will run from October 2022 to March 31, 2023, in which approximately 33.6 million people are expected to be inoculated.”
Finally, he commented that children who have not yet been vaccinated can still make up for lost time. The use of combined vaccines, accelerated schedules and continued reliance on vaccines is recommended.
It is important to mention that the hexavalent co-administration vaccine can be administered simultaneously with pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine, MMR, rotavirus vaccine, meningococcal conjugate vaccine C, meningococcal conjugate vaccine A, C, W-135, and there is no clinical interference in the response to antibodies against each of the antigens.
While hexavalent vaccines, according to the Italian consensus, have better adherence to the scheme, high profile of immunogenicity and safety, co-administration, administration in preterm infants, adequate profile of persistence of AC vs HepB, reduces the risk of possible errors of preparation and time of administration.
