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PAHO Director General urges countries to continue vaccinations

by Marlon Madden
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A call to authorities not to let their guards down as it relates to vaccination against a range of diseases and infections, even as they focus on containing the COVID-19 outbreak.

This caution came from Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Dr Carissa Etienne on Tuesday as she addressed the organization’s weekly virtual media briefing.

Pointing out that this week was World Immunization Week, Etienne said it should be a time to promote and celebrate “the life-saving power of vaccines”.

Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Dr Carissa Etienne.

In fact, calling on leaders in the Caribbean and Latin America to approach the issue of vaccination with “an acute sense of urgency”, Etienne said immunizations “must be delivered by the health services alongside the response to COVID-19”.

“We must vaccinate to protect health workers, the elderly and vulnerable population from other respiratory infections such as influenza and pneumococcus, which can lead to more hospitalizations and maybe harder to diagnose in the context of COVID-19,” she said.

“If we fall behind on routine immunizations particularly for children, we risk outbreaks, just overwhelming hospitals and clinics with preventable diseases in addition to COVID-19. The impact on our health systems would take months or even years to reverse. This region has shown great capacity to ensure its people are vaccinated and we must maintain this capacity now, but also ensure the readiness to deliver the vaccine for COVID-19,” she said.

The PAHO official said history has shown that if countries allow large gaps in immunization coverage, preventable diseases such as polio and measles could re-emerge.

She lamented that the COVID-19 pandemic has already impacted immunization programmes in some countries through the interruption of vaccine supply routes and reduction of availability of health workers to deliver immunization.

“This is a cause for alert, if we do not immunize now many more people are going to get sick from preventable diseases in the coming months and years,” Etienne warned, adding that PAHO had issued detailed guidance to countries to help them plan and make decisions on which vaccines to prioritize during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“So we recommend that governments prioritize those vaccines that are most urgent, this includes vaccine for diseases that have an imminent risk of expanding in that area such as measles and vaccines that can protect from other respiratory infections such as flu and pneumococcus. It is important that we find safe ways to deliver vaccines during the pandemic,” she said.

She said several South American nations were finding creative ways to administer vaccines including the use of drive-thru services.

Pointing out that some 45 countries and territories were intensifying vaccination efforts, she said PAHO was projecting that 100 million people in the region would receive the flu vaccine this season.

In relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Etienne said there has been a concerning rise in new cases in Latin America, adding that the burden of COVID-19 in the region was “greater than what health authorities have been able to report in previous weeks”.

“Based on everything we know it is vital that countries reinforce protective measures now and use all tools available to them. This includes proven public health interventions like social distancing, testing, isolating cases and contact tracing,” she said.

She later warned that any attempt to transition from physical distancing to more flexible measures should be taken with “extreme caution” to prevent a reverse in any gains achieved.

“Such decisions should always be informed by the disease transition patterns, by COVID-19 testing, contact tracing capacity, the availability of hospital beds and other objective criteria. So surveillance must be strengthened to ensure that there is adequate monitoring of this criteria. I think it is important that we must also draw lessons from countries that have transitioned and are transitioning,” she said.

Meanwhile, PAHO’s Director of Health Emergencies Dr Ciro Ugarte lauded the Caribbean for its handling of the pandemic.

PAHO’s Director of Health Emergencies Dr Ciro Ugarte.

He said: “the Caribbean has been responding to this in a very cohesive way. All the previous preparation and coordination among countries is paying off, not only in deciding together, but in terms of strengthening their capacity and sharing their resources in a scope of solidarity”.

“I think that is the main lesson that we have to learn. This pandemic represents an opportunity to show our solidarity with other countries. Of course, the governments have to look inside their own countries, but this pandemic is beyond that. So this is something that we have to learn from the Eastern Caribbean countries,” said Ugarte. (MM)

 

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