Home » Health » Panama, at the advanced stage of childhood vaccination in the region, say authorities

Panama, at the advanced stage of childhood vaccination in the region, say authorities

This content was published on May 24, 2022 – 01:32

Panama City, May 23 (EFE) .- Panama became the first country in the region to introduce the hexavalent pediatric vaccine in its national immunization schedule, placing itself at the forefront of vaccination programs in Latin America, sources highlighted on Monday. officers.

The Ministry of Health of Panama (Minsa) recently announced the inclusion of the first booster dose of the hexavalent acellular vaccine at 18 months and the second booster of the tetravalent acellular vaccine at 4 years in its national immunization schedule.

Hexavalent is a combined pediatric vaccine that in a single dose protects against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, hepatitis B, and invasive diseases caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b.

“With this implementation, Panama is at the forefront of vaccination programs in Latin America,” said Itzel de Hewitt, general coordinator of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) of the Ministry of Health, according to a statement.

Hewitt affirmed that cases like the one in Panama should be replicated by other countries in the region due to their “broad benefits.”

Panama applies a scheme that protects against 30 vaccine-preventable diseases such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, polio, pneumococcus, influenza, chicken pox, measles, mumps and is made up of 25 vaccines in total.

Hewitt considers that having more effective immunization programs and also investing in more modern vaccines offers better protection for the population and also generates “relevant savings” for the State because “it reduces the burden on health systems, already saturated by the pandemic of the covid-19”.

Because of this, he affirms that cases like the one in Panama “should be replicated by other countries in the region due to their broad benefits.”

Even so, the EPI coordinator points out that although Panama has one of the most complete vaccination programs in the region, it can be further strengthened with the “incorporation of vaccines with new technologies and through the development of immunization strategies that contribute in the reduction of the gaps (in vaccination) that currently exist and that increased” with the covid-19 pandemic.

“The success of immunization programs is undeniable, vaccines save between 4 and 5 million lives each year, but only if people have access to them,” added Hewitt.

To do this, the expert says that equitable access and the use of new and existing vaccines must be increased, to “ensure that they reach more and more people, leaving no one behind”, while highlighting the importance of mass immunization.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) estimates that the interruptions in regular immunization campaigns in the last two years have set back almost three decades of progress in vaccination against polio and measles, which represents a real risk for their reintroduction. . EFE

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