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Washington (AFP)
Vaccinating pregnant and lactating mothers against COVID-19 should be a priority in the Americas, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) requested on Wednesday, underlining the advantages of immunization to protect women and babies during the pandemic.
The Director of PAHO, Carissa Etienne, considered it “extremely important” that pregnant women have access to the anticovid vaccine to protect themselves and their babies. And he highlighted an additional advantage: mothers who breastfeed pass immunity to their children.
Countries “must give priority to pregnant women and nursing mothers for vaccines against covid-19,” he said at a press conference.
PAHO, which has already warned that the pandemic threatens to end 20-year achievements in the fight to reduce maternal mortality in the Americas, again warned about the impact of Covid-19 on pregnant women.
“Most of the countries in our region have already reported more cases and deaths (from the coronavirus) among pregnant women this year than in all of 2020,” Etienne said.
He stressed that the reported risk is especially high in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, countries that account for half of all deaths from covid-19 among pregnant women in the region.
“In Mexico and Colombia, covid-19 has become the leading cause of maternal death in 2021,” Etienne said.
According to data from PAHO, the regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 270,000 pregnant women have fallen ill with covid-19 in the Americas since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Among them, more than 2,600 (1% of those infected) died from the virus.
– “Safe” and “fundamental” –
Pregnant women are more vulnerable to respiratory infections like the one caused by the coronavirus due to changes in their immune system during pregnancy.
And it is proven that if pregnant women are infected with COVID-19, they are at greater risk of developing severe symptoms of the disease and require more frequent ventilation and intensive care. They can also give birth to premature babies.
Wearing masks, maintaining social distance, limiting contact with people outside their homes and avoiding meetings in closed spaces are public health measures that help prevent the spread of Covid-19.
But Etienne placed a strong emphasis on adding vaccination to this.
“Let me be clear: PAHO recommends that all pregnant women after the first trimester, as well as those who are breastfeeding, receive the covid-19 vaccine,” he emphasized.
Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay are some of the countries that have included pregnant women in their priority groups for vaccination against the coronavirus.
But according to PAHO, less than half of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have implemented guidelines to vaccinate this population.
Etienne stressed that the WHO approved anticovid vaccines “are safe to administer during pregnancy and are a fundamental tool to protect pregnant women during the pandemic.”
In Mexico, where pregnant women have long been considered a priority group, “not a single vaccinated woman has died of COVID-19 during pregnancy,” he stressed.
– WHO green light –
WHO has so far approved six COVID-19 vaccines: Moderna, Pfizer / BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Sinovac.
PAHO Deputy Director Jarbas Barbosa said Wednesday that the WHO authorization process for the Russian Sputnik vaccine has been suspended since June.
“That was because it was found in a Sputnik production plant in Russia conditions that are not the conditions that are required to have good manufacturing practices,” he explained.
“At the moment we do not have a date of when that process is going to be completed,” he added.
No vaccine that has not been approved by WHO can be endorsed by PAHO, or included in the portfolio of the global Covax distribution mechanism.
However, Barbosa specified that each country is sovereign in its decision to certify any vaccine and apply it.
© 2021 AFP
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