The news caused controversy at the beginning of this year when the JN.1 variant was already circulating in the country: of a total of 1,201,900 doses of the Spikevax vaccine against covid-19 that arrived in Colombia in 2023 to be administered to people over 6 months, only 121,484 applied.
The rest fell due in November of last year and cost the country close to 70,000 million pesos.
Of a total of 1,201,900 doses of the Spikevax vaccine against covid-19 that arrived in Colombia in 2023 to be administered to those over 6 months old, only 121,484 were applied. Photo REUTERS/Hannah Beier | Photo: REUTERS
Although at first the Ministry of Health remained silent regarding the complaint, on January 24 it acknowledged the facts, but not before holding the territorial entities responsible for the non-application of that large number of doses.
Statements from the Bogotá Health Secretariat reported that MinSalud continued to deliver doses up to a month before their expiration, despite the fact that the ministry knew of their short useful life. These were Moderna vaccines, special for children between 6 months and 3 years old, intended for first and second doses and which had to be applied at an interval of 28 days.
Meanwhile, during the second half of 2023, thousands of parents were busily looking for how to vaccinate their children; parents like Sofía Molano, mother of a 3-year-old girl, who wanted to immunize her against covid-19 and strengthen her immune system before starting her school life. “I asked for the vaccine everywhere. At Sanitas, my EPS; with private pediatricians, even from other cities.” She always came back with the same answer: “They are not available.”
Two weeks ago, Sofía’s fears came true: the girl tested positive. She “She started with a strong stomach upset and a flu that wouldn’t go away. Then I found out that the flu was actually coronavirus after some tests,” says Sofía, visibly upset. It is not explained how, after unsuccessfully seeking to vaccinate her daughter, the girl ended up infected and in serious condition, since the little girl required a few days of assisted ventilation.
During the second half of 2023, thousands of parents were busily looking for how to vaccinate their children. | Photo: ©2020 Tang Ming Tung
Cases like this are repeated throughout the country, where 30 percent of reported Covid-19 infections affect the pediatric population that is not vaccinated and may present with prolonged Covid or cardiovascular problems.
The person who explains it is Germán Camacho, president of the Colombian Association of Infectious Diseases. The specialist remembers that, in the midst of the pandemic, children were the last group to be vaccinated, “because the incidence of the disease in them was lower.”
However, despite the fact that “the risk perception of Covid in children was lower than that of adults”, an erroneous interpretation was made, in the sense that “either they did not get Covid, or it was mild.” .
The Colombian Society of Pediatrics led a campaign seeking to promote vaccination against covid in children. | Photo: Colombian Society of Pediatrics
The doctor explains that the symptoms of covid in children are “nonspecific”, so they “do not necessarily become respiratory”. In the case of babies and children approaching one year of age, “they may have gastrointestinal manifestations, including vomiting and diarrhea.”
María Isabel Uscher, pediatrician and former president of the Bogotá regional Colombian Society of Pediatrics, points out that the covid vaccine for children from 6 months to 3 years arrived when, months ago, several sectors argued that it was not as serious in them as in older adults or people at risk due to comorbidities. That, she says, slowed down the vaccination process for infants in the country.
2024-02-17 05:16:17
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