PAHO urges Caribbean to urgently step-up routine vaccination programmes

WASHINGTON, Apr 21, CMC – The director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) Dr. Jarbas Barbosa has called on Caribbean and other countries in the Americas to urgently step-up routine vaccination programmes as the risk of disease outbreaks in the region reaches a 30-year high due to a decline in vaccination coverage.

While the Americas was the first region in the world to eliminate polio in 1994 and has historically been a world leader in disease control and elimination, “national immunisation programmes have suffered numerous setbacks over the last decade,” Dr. Barbosa said during a media briefing here.

He said that inadequate sustainable financing for immunisation and an increase in vaccine hesitancy due to misinformation have been among the primary drivers of the drop in coverage – factors further exacerbated by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

PAHO said the region of the Americas is the second in the world with the worst vaccine coverage and that an estimated  2.7 million children did not receive all their vaccine doses in 2021, leaving them without full protection against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.

It said two countries – Brazil and Mexico – account for more than 50 per cent of children that have never received a vaccine in the region.

Failure to effectively implement and maintain routine vaccination coverage leaves children “susceptible to diseases such as polio, tetanus, measles and diphtheria,” Dr. Barbosa warned.

In the run up to April 22-29 Vaccination Week in the Americas,  the PAHO director urged countries to step up efforts to “recover the vaccination coverage rates that protected us in the past.”

Vaccination Week in the Americas is “an extraordinary strategy to complement the efforts of national immunisation programmes,” Dr. Barbosa said, supporting efforts to protect more than one billion people of all ages since its inception 20 years ago.

This year, the theme of the week is “Get up to date #EachVaccineCounts” and the aim is to reach more than 92 million people across the region with life-saving vaccines.

Dr. Barbosa said PAHO’s commitment to strengthening national immunisation programmes does not stop at these events.

He said the organisation continues to work with countries of the region, technical partners, and donors to strengthen and modernise national immunisation programs, improve and reinforce cold chain operations, and implement innovative approaches to better tackle the challenges the pandemic has brought forth.

Dr. Barbosa said PAHO is also supporting vaccine production through its Regional Platform to Advance the Manufacturing of COVID-19 Vaccines and other Health Technologies in the Americas, and is already working with Sinergium Biotech in Argentina and the Bio-Manguinhos Institute (FIOCRUZ) in Brazil on the regional development and production of mRNA-based vaccines.

“National immunisation programmes are our first line of defence against outbreaks. But each one of us can do our part to protect ourselves and our loved ones. And we can start by getting all our shots during Vaccination Week in the Americas,” Dr. Barbosa said.

PAHO said that, in 2021, more than 2.7 million children under the age of one, did not receive all their vaccine doses against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.

In 2010, PAHO said the Americas was the second region with the highest reported vaccination coverage. It said national immunisation programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean prevent around 174,000 deaths in children under five each year.

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