Cuba marks Immunization Week in the Americas

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 24 (ACN) The Vaccination Week in the Americas, which takes place April 22-29, aims to generate high levels of demand and acceptance of vaccines to protect the population, and in Cuba coincides with the second stage of the 62nd National Oral Polio Vaccination Campaign, to support the goal of eradicating that disease in the world.

Since 2003, the initiative has allowed the vaccination of more than 1million people in 40 countries and made possible the creation of the World Immunization Week in 2012, said today, in Havana, Liset Perez Perea, consultant of the office of the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization (PAHO / WHO) in Cuba.

Despite the efforts, the Americas are facing a crisis regarding vaccination services, in 2010 it was the region with the second highest coverage after Europe and today -due to COVID-19- it is the second in the world with the worst vaccination coverage, followed by Africa, besides the risk of outbreaks due to vaccine-preventable diseases is at its highest point in the last 30 years, the doctor said.

In an event held at the Cosme Ordoñez Montiller Polyclinic in the Plaza de la Revolucion municipality, to kick off the second stage of polio vaccination, she pointed out that in 2021 nearly 3 million children under one year of age will not have received all the doses of vaccines, which means that one out of every five children will not be protected against this disease, tetanus, measles and diphtheria.

The PAHO consultant pointed out that in the midst of this context, Cuba maintains coverage of over 96 % for all the vaccines in the schedule, and during COVID-19 it doubled its actions to guarantee routine immunization and to carry out a massive campaign against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes the disease, with vaccines produced in Cuba.

Dr. Francisco Duran Garcia, National Director of Epidemiology of Cuban ministry of health(MINSAP by its Spanish acronym), recalled the dramatic situation that existed in the country concerning polio and recalled that one of the first actions of the Revolution was to carry out a vaccination campaign to eliminate it.

Currently, he insisted, as part of the immunization scheme, 11 vaccines against 13 diseases are applied and eight of those vaccines are of national production, an experience that allowed the development of immunogens against COVID-19, with which the population is immunized.

The second stage of the 62nd National Oral Polio Vaccination Campaign began today for children who received a dose in the first phase, developed between February 27 and March 4, and according to information from the MINSAP will be recovered from May 2 to 6.