La Nación / They plan to update the vaccination schedule

The Paraguayan Society of Pediatrics raises the need to update the vaccination calendar of our country, now obsolete for several years. Dr Ana Campuzano, president of the Paraguayan Society of Pediatrics, indicated that the last update of the calendar was in 2012, when Antonio Arbo was still Minister of Health.

Since then, the same vaccination scheme has remained in force in our country, which is why pediatric professionals consider it appropriate to provide for a series of adjustments. One of the change requests includes the pentavalent vaccine to the hexavalent one, he mentioned 1080 AM. “If the penta we have now is used, we have to put polio and what we have now is the oral one that has the third and fourth dose.”

As he commented, virtually no country in the world is currently using this type of vaccine, Paraguay being one of the few exceptions. Likewise, he argued that the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine should also be introduced for men, as until now it is limited to women only. “In the civilized world it is also used in men”.

From the SPP they also propose the inclusion in the national calendar of the meningococcal vaccine, especially considering that in Paraguay there have already been several deaths due to this preventable disease.

For over 30 years Paraguay has had safe and effective vaccines to protect the population from measles, rubella and polio and, thanks to vaccination, it has managed to eliminate these viruses.

Through the application of vaccines, in addition to the reduction of cases of pertussis or pertussis between 1980 and 2021, from 886 cases to 5 cases, the following diseases have no longer been recorded since 1985 in any cases of poliomyelitis; in 1998, the last case of measles; in 2003, the last case of congenital rubella syndrome; in 2005 the last case of rubella; 2008, last case of yellow fever; in 2011 the last case of diphtheria and in 2015 the measles / rubella elimination certificate in Paraguay.