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Washington (AFP) – The region of the Americas runs a “high risk” of outbreaks of preventable diseases due to the lack of routine vaccination due to the covid-19 pandemic, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned on Wednesday.
The American continent became a global leader in the control of smallpox, polio, rubella, measles, and tetanus thanks to PAHO’s Expanded Program on Immunization, created in 1977.
But “significant decreases” in immunization coverage rates since the coronavirus emergency, coupled with a relaxation or cessation of public health measures to curb the spread of covid-19, “will foreseeably result” in an increase in many of these diseases, according to PAHO experts.
“Unless we improve our routine immunization programs, the region is at high risk of new and re-emerging outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases,” PAHO Director Carissa Etienne told reporters.
“The region faces an impending crisis around routine vaccination and continued attention must be paid as a priority to maintain and strengthen immunization and other essential health programs,” he added.
Etienne recognized the additional pressure that the Covid-19 crisis puts on health systems, but urged the countries of the region to revitalize national vaccination programs to avoid backtracking on the achievements made.
PAHO insisted that the pandemic is not over.
During the last week, peaks of cases were reported in areas of Colombia and Bolivia and an upward trend in the Southern Cone after the relaxation of prevention measures. Infections also increased in the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, as well as in the Cayman Islands and Dominica.
“The current moment is still worrying. Infections are increasing in some countries and the rate of vaccination is still not what we would like,” Etienne said.
Although 48% of people in Latin America and the Caribbean have already been fully immunized against COVID-19, coverage is still much lower in some countries.
In Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Guatemala less than one in five people is immunized. In Nicaragua, coverage remains in the single digits and in Haiti less than 1% of people have completed the vaccination schedule, PAHO warned.
© 2021 AFP
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