Covid vaccination

In April 2023, the Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) called on the countries of the region, and particularly the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, to “urgently intensify routine vaccination efforts,” this given the evidence of the highest level of preventable disease outbreaks in the last 30 years.

Written by: Mario Luis Fuentes

According to PAHO, Latin America is the region in the world with the worst vaccination coverage, since around 2.7 million girls and boys in the region did not have access to complete vaccine protection against diphtheria, tetanus, polio and measles, of which some outbreaks were recorded in our country that year, and now there is a new alert in different spaces because a new outbreak could be being registered due to the same disease.

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The above is important to highlight because, according to the organization itself, in 2010, the region of the Americas was the second region in the world with the highest level of reported vaccination coverage, while, as already noted, a decade later it was ranks only below Africa.

Mexico is one of the countries that has contributed to the greatest extent to deepen this trend in recent years, since according to official information, there has been a very significant drop in vaccination levels, both in the group of less than 1 year , as in the scheme that covers the group up to five years old.

In this context, the Epidemiological Bulletin of the Ministry of Health reports that, for the year 2022, there were 2,532 reported cases of Measles; and until week 52 of 2023, there was a record of 2,208 cases. The accumulated until week 4 of this year 2024 is 104 cases, a figure relatively similar to that registered for the same period in 2023, when 102 cases were recorded.

On the other hand, regarding Enteritis due to Rotavirus, in 2023 there was a record of 1,012 cases, compared to 792 that were recorded in 2022, that is, an increase of 27.7% in just one year. Likewise, in 2023 there were 155 cases of Whooping Cough, a figure that contrasts with the 44 cases in 2022; This represents an increase of 252% in a single year and should be a cause for alert in the Health Sector.

Regarding Meningococcal Meningitis, in 2023 there were 31 cases, compared to 11 registered in 2022, that is, practically triple what was registered in the previous year. And although in absolute terms they seem like “few cases”, in reality very serious attention must be paid because outbreaks of diseases that were already considered on the path to being eradicated could be generated.

Continuing with the list of diseases preventable by vaccination, the Ministry of Health reported, for 2023, a total of 136 cases, compared to 39 registered in all of 2022; and Monkeypox, 312 cases in 2023, being a completely new outbreak for the country in 2023.

In the case of chickenpox, 41,198 cases were reported in 2023, compared to 34,759 recorded in 2022. This means an increase of 18.52% in just one year; and in this specific case it is of singular relevance because contracting chickenpox predisposes people to suffer from herpes zoster in adulthood, a disease that can also be prevented by vaccination, but for which there is little information to determine the level of coverage in older people. 50 years old.

On the other hand, there are cases of Viral Hepatitis A and B. Of the former, 6,977 cases were registered in 2023, compared to 4,201 in 2022; that is, 66% more between both years; while for type B, the registration was 830 cases in 2023, compared to 611 in 2022, which is equivalent to a growth of 35.8% between both periods.

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As can be seen, there are a large number of diseases in which the cases of disease reported and confirmed by the Health Sector had very significant increases; and at the same time, the reduction in budgets for the National Vaccination Program that has occurred in recent years has led to significant reductions in areas where relevant progress was made.

The setbacks that have occurred in this matter go against the principle of progressiveness of human rights, since the fact that vaccination coverage is reduced for people of all ages, but particularly in the youngest age groups, It constitutes a major nonsense, due to the specific effects on each one of them that does not receive complete coverage, but also due to the impact it has at a global level in the field of public health in our country.

It must be said that the National Vaccination Program is one of the most relevant policies that the Mexican State has built in recent decades and in whose construction exemplary people participated, such as the great Doctor Jesús Kumate without a doubt. And that is one of the issues that should not be left aside in the public discussion, because what it is about is advancing in the institutional consolidation of the country, protecting and improving the best practices that we have generated for the protection of the health of people.

Haggling over resources to cover complete vaccination schedules for girls and boys is an act of budgetary meanness, but also an obtuse vision regarding a country project for the full realization of social rights. What is required, now and always, will be to move towards authentic universalization, and not allow, for any reason, this to be the cause of any girl or boy being left behind in their development opportunities.

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Researcher at PUED-UNAM

2024-02-11 09:00:29
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