A new report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) showed that vaccination rates for boys and girls in Latin America and the Caribbean are the lowest in the last decade, since one in four lacks "vaccines." vital", a situation that takes immunization coverage rates back to the levels of almost 30 years ago.
During the launch of the report The State of the World’s Children 2023: For every childhood, vaccination ; Unicef assured that the region "has gone from having one of the highest childhood vaccination rates in the world to one of the lowest."
In Latin America and the Caribbean, coverage of the third dose of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) among boys and girls under one year of age fell 18 percentage points: it went from 93% in 2012 to 75 % in 2021.
With this figure, it is located in the "lowest routine vaccination rate in the region in almost 30 years, which places Latin America and the Caribbean below the world average (81 percent) and just ahead of Africa Eastern and Southern (74 percent)," the report noted.
According to the latest estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef, the region’s setback in immunization "has left 2.4 million boys and girls - one in four under one year old - unprotected." against diseases preventable by vaccination". And more than 1.7 million are "zero doses", that is, they are boys and girls who have never received a vaccine, according to the document and emphasized that children from the poorest homes are "almost three times more likely to be ’zero dose’ than those from the richest households.
"For many years, Latin America and the Caribbean had one of the highest childhood vaccination rates in the world. Now it has one of the lowest. This is one of the most serious childhood vaccination crises the region has seen in almost 30 years. years," said Garry Conille , regional director of Unicef for the region, in statements cited by the Télam agency .
The official also highlighted that “diseases such as diphtheria, measles and polio, which were previously believed to have been eradicated in many countries, are reappearing throughout the region, endangering the lives of the most marginalized children and the well-being of all. ".
The international organization’s report maintains that the decline in childhood vaccination in Latin America and the Caribbean "may be due to multiple factors," such as natural disasters, violence, urbanization, instability and migration, all situations that contribute to the increase. of "inequalities."
The disparity in public health spending in the region and reduced investment in some countries left "marginalized communities with limited access to quality primary health care services," UNICEF said.
He added that the coronavirus pandemic "exacerbated these challenges, disrupting childhood vaccinations due to intense demands on health systems and stay-at-home measures. In recent years, there are also signs of declining confidence in the vaccination in some countries in the region".
In this framework, the agency highlighted the importance of vaccination and expressed that "it not only saves lives, but is also a proven strategy to reduce future health care costs and support economic growth" since for every US dollar invested in immunization they return up to 26.
"With one of the best records of childhood vaccinations, Latin America and the Caribbean has no excuses. 10 years ago, this region demonstrated that it could protect children from life-threatening diseases. There is no reason why we cannot return to do it now, with more knowledge, capacity and resources," said Conille.
"Vaccination is one of the simplest and most cost-effective public health interventions. To make up for lost ground and ensure all children are vaccinated, governments and partners must invest in vaccination and primary health care. We can prevent disease children now or assume the costs later," the official added.
More than a million Argentine children never received a vaccine
The Argentine Society of Pediatrics (SAP) reported that, according to the most recent records - corresponding to the year 2021 - in Argentina more than 1 million children between 0 and 11 years old did not receive any of the free and mandatory vaccines included. in the National Vaccination Calendar or did not complete any of the schedules in terms of the number of doses.
The communication was formulated within the framework of Vaccination Week in the Americas, an initiative of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) that, under the call to action “Catch up. #EveryVacunaCounts”, from April 22 to 29, carries out the 21st Vaccination Week in the Americas (VAS) and the 12th World Immunization Week, together with the countries and territories of the region.
The number of children and adolescents who have an incomplete immunization schedule in Argentina arises from the 2nd Special Report of the Observatory for Children and Adolescents on Vaccination corresponding to the year 2021, which was prepared by the SAP and UNICEF based on data from the Nation’s Directorate for Control of Immunopreventable Diseases.
“Complete vaccination is a fundamental tool to achieve robust immunity capable of preventing potentially very serious infections in girls, boys and adolescents,” said Dr. Elizabeth Patricia Bogdanowicz, pediatric infectious disease doctor and member of the Infectology Committee of the Argentine Society of Pediatrics. .
“Systematic immunization makes it possible to establish contact with the health care system at the beginning of life and offers all children the possibility of having a healthy life from the beginning and until an advanced age,” they warned from the SAP.
The study also found that in 2021 there was a slight recovery in vaccination coverage in all age groups compared to 2020 , which was the main year of the Covid-19 pandemic, but it also concluded that this improvement did not reach pre-pandemic levels. .
In a breakdown by age, the report details that in 2021 at least 100,000 children under one year of age did not complete the vaccination schedule against the following diseases: whooping cough (whooping cough), Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type B), diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B and poliomyelitis; while at least 73,000 one-year-old infants did not receive protection against hepatitis A, measles, rubella and mumps; and 118,000 did not have complete protection against pneumococcus.
On the other hand, at least 10,000 infants between 15 and 18 months did not receive protection against chickenpox and 136,000 did not have the booster against whooping cough, Hib, diphtheria, tetanus and hepatitis B.
In the group of five-year-old boys and girls, 150,000 did not receive complete protection against measles, rubella and mumps; while 122,000 did not have the booster against whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria.
Finally, 186,000 11-year-old adolescents did not receive the booster against whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria; and, in this same age group, 184,000 women and 217,000 men did not have the second dose of the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine. In total, more than 1 million children in Argentina in 2021 were missing at least one vaccine or one dose of the required schedule.
Therefore, taking into account the number of children and adolescents who have an incomplete immunization schedule in the country, Dr. Gabriela Tapponnier, pediatric infectious disease doctor and secretary of the SAP Infectology Committee, warned about the importance of vaccination routine: “It is essential to protect individual health and, also, from a community point of view, to avoid the appearance of outbreaks of diseases that were under control or even considered eradicated.”
Routine vaccines are those that are recommended for all people, depending on age, stage of life and vaccine history, defines PAHO, adding that there is routine vaccination for children, adolescents, pregnant women, adults and older adults.
The report carried out by SAP and UNICEF showed coverage levels insufficient to achieve herd immunity, also called the “herd effect”, which can result in greater circulation of pathogenic agents such as viruses and bacteria, thus increasing the number of carriers and the incidence of diseases.
“Vaccination is one of the health interventions with the greatest impact and effectiveness, since it saves millions of lives in the world every year,” said Dr. Andrea Uboldi, pediatric infectious disease doctor and member of the SAP Infectology Committee. .
Among the figures related to the lack of vaccination coverage, the SAP and UNICEF particularly expressed their great concern about the more than 100,000 infants who were left unprotected with the incomplete primary schedule during 2021, and also pointed out that the coverage in infants and infants of one year they did not achieve the necessary goal to ensure individual and collective protection.
The specialists from both institutions emphatically agreed in recommending that the population attend a medical consultation with the pediatrician in order to verify the immunization schedules of minors and, in cases where a vaccine is missing, proceed to complete the immunization.
The National Calendar vaccines are mandatory, free and are applied in official vaccination centers, health centers and public hospitals in the country, and this includes vaccines for all stages of life, special situations or for specific groups.
“It is also the responsibility of adults to know and consult the National Vaccination Calendar to know with certainty which are the free and mandatory vaccines for each age during childhood and adolescence,” said Dr. Miriam Calvari, also an infectious disease specialist at the Argentine Society of Pediatrics.
Another point that the SAP and UNICEF highlighted in their report was the high dropout rate at the national level for the second dose of the HPV vaccine, which is administered to 11-year-old adolescents.
“The coverage for the first dose against HPV shows adequate similarity to the acellular triple bacterial vaccine. However, the high dropout rate of the second dose at the national level is evident,” they warned.
In the region of the Americas, PAHO carries out the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) with the objective of eliminating and controlling vaccine-preventable diseases, such as poliomyelitis, rubella, congenital rubella syndrome, measles and neonatal tetanus.
