The medical societies of Infectious Diseases, Public Health and Childcare and Pediatrics expressed their concern about the low coverage of vaccines for children and adolescents. Support efforts to increase coverage against polio, measles and rubella
Three Venezuelan medical societies issued a statement this Tuesday the 16th to request the authorities to maintain a “sufficient reserve” of all the vaccines contemplated in the National Immunization Plan, due to the low vaccination rates in children and adolescents.
The medical societies of Infectious Diseases, Public Health and Childcare and Pediatrics signed the document, where they expressed their concern after the review of figures that “reveal very low national vaccination coverage” that do not meet the established goal of 95%.
According to data from Unicef and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), most of the vaccines in the Expanded Program on Immunizations do not reach 80%. This leads to “a serious epidemiological risk for the appearance of epidemics.”
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For this reason, they exhorted the Government to work “hard to ensure a sufficient reserve of safe, protective and guaranteed vaccines that allow the full operation of the Expanded Program on Immunizations.”
According to the WHO, during the pandemic there was a significant delay in complying with childhood immunization schedules, a reality that Venezuela does not escape, “so vaccination coverage must be raised urgently.”
polio vaccines
Medical societies also expressed their support for the national vaccination campaign against polio, measles and rubellawith the aim of increasing coverage throughout the population.
In the document, they clarified several doubts regarding the vaccines applied to comply with the protection scheme against polio. The societies confirmed that there is sufficient scientific evidence to verify the safety of the combination of oral polio vaccine (OPV) and intramuscular polio vaccine (IPV).
In other words, if any child does not have the intramuscular polio vaccine, which are two initial doses, they can receive these vaccines together with the OPV vaccine, which is currently available in this campaign.
Medical societies recommend that, at the end of the campaign, the regular vaccination program be insisted on (two initial doses of intramuscular polio and the rest of oral polio). “We reiterate the need to incorporate IPV into all doses of the scheme, thus complying with the vaccination strategy in the Americas.”
On July 27, PAHO reported that Venezuela received 2.9 million bivalent oral polio vaccines (bOPV) to strengthen its immunization campaign, which began in June and will run through September.
The goal in Venezuela is to vaccinate at least 3.3 million children between two months and five years old against polio, and 2.8 million children between one and five years old against measles and rubella.
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