Buenos Aires, June 2018 (PAHO / WHO) .- Officials and experts from eight countries of the Americas met in Buenos Aires to discuss a new strategy to increase vaccination coverage in large cities, taking the DPT3 vaccine as a global indicator -which provides antibodies against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus-, which decreased from 94% in 2011 to 91% in 2015.
During the meeting, promoted by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), they warned that 50% of the municipalities of the region do not reach coverage greater than 95% and the problems are particularly relevant in large cities, due to the high population concentration .
"The risk of low coverage is to have imported outbreaks," said PAHO Regional Vaccine Adviser Martha Velandia during the day, which involved representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru.
During the meeting, promoted by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), they warned that 50% of the municipalities of the region do not reach coverage greater than 95% and the problems are particularly relevant in large cities, due to the high population concentration .
"The risk of low coverage is to have imported outbreaks," said PAHO Regional Vaccine Adviser Martha Velandia during the day, which involved representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru.
The advisor explained that all the countries of the region have municipalities with coverage below 80%. "Argentina is increasing the number of municipalities with coverage between 50 and 79% and decreasing those with coverage above 80%," he warned.
In the world, the coverage of the DPT3 vaccine is 86%, but a stagnation is perceived. And in the region, 25 percent of the municipalities have coverage less than 80%, described the advisor in Vaccines.
The meeting was inaugurated by the Undersecretary of Control and Prevention of Communicable and Immunopreventable Diseases of the Nation, Miriam Burgos, who explained that maintaining vaccination coverage became a problem "for many countries", so she welcomed the initiative to maintain a meeting to identify effective strategies.
During the meeting, the participants shared different lessons learned from the countries to improve immunization rates in urban and peri-urban populations and recommendations to develop proposals to improve access and use of vaccines. They also identified effective vaccination strategies especially targeting disadvantaged slum populations in the Americas.
In September 2015, the 54th Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) approved the Regional Plan of Action on Immunization (RIAP), as a guiding framework for immunization in the Region of the Americas. This plan, which is in line with the World Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) of the World Health Organization (WHO), aims to continue advancing and overcoming the challenges related to immunization currently facing the countries of the world. the region.
