The Minister of Health of the Nation, Carla Vizzotti, assured This saturday that the pandemic put vaccines “at the center of the scene” and revalued their importance in “saving lives”, by participating in a Latin American meeting on poliomyelitis.
The official participated in the meeting called “No more polio, everyone’s right”, a virtual meeting in which the official highlighted the value of the vaccine to “be one step away” from eradicating this disease.
“This is a very special moment, because the pandemic has put vaccines back at the center of the scene and has shown the importance they have in saving lives”said the minister during the meeting to exchange “experiences, visions and challenges to achieve the definitive eradication of all forms of polio transmission in the region.”
In that sense, the minister pointed out that Latin America has been a pioneer in this matter and has always been an example of vaccination in the world. “Our region was the first to eliminate polio. Argentina had its last case in 1984 in Salta, 37 years ago, “he explained, while highlighting the need for all children to have access to vaccines.
“The challenge ahead is to maintain polio vaccination coverage in each corner of our territory, which was already a difficult task before the pandemic due to the low perception of risk of this disease,” he added.
During the meeting, Vizzotti pointed out that in Latin America only 13 countries have coverage of more than 95 percent and for that reason it is important to maintain epidemiological surveillance and work so that more and more countries have access to polio-inactivated vaccines.
The meeting was organized by the Network of Girls, Boys and Adolescents Defenders of the Right to Health in Latin America and the Caribbean, and for the Citizen Voices Regional Initiative, and had the participation of specialists from the region who agreed on the importance of the different States and authorities guaranteeing actions and policies, with a human rights perspective, for the control and eradication of this disease.
“I really hope that this space helps us to become much more aware of the polio disease that has affected so many lives around the world,” said the young Esther Cabrera of the Network of Girls, Boys and Adolescents. Defenders of the Right to Health in Latin America and the Caribbean, within the framework of World Poliomyelitis Day, which is celebrated every October 24.
In turn, the president of the Citizen Voices Regional Initiative, Pilar Collantes, called on the different countries of the region to promote access to timely diagnoses and provide the best efforts so that “children with wild polio, poliovirus derivative, or postvaccinal polio, may reach its greatest development “.
During the meeting, polio survivors shared their personal experience, such as the case of Luis Fermín Tenorio Cortez, the latest victim of wild poliovirus in Peru and the entire American continent; or María Elena Jiménez, an Argentine citizen who suffered from the disease as a child, who warned about the post-polio syndrome, which can reverse recovered capacities and cause muscle fatigue, insomnia, or depression.
– .
