The drop in the vaccination figures are overwhelming. And we are not talking about the one referring to the prevention of Covid-19, a pathology that continues with low circulation, but about a significant decrease in the number of Argentines -especially children- who did not receive their basic preventive vaccines for various pathologies. This situation, however, cannot be exclusively attributed to the past two years of the pandemic. In fact, the decrease in coverage began to be noted in the epidemiological statistics already from 2016. Of course, this gradual decline in vaccination coverage was exacerbated by the arrival of Covid. A recent report published by the Childhood and Adolescence Observatory made by doctors from the Society Argentina of Pediatrics and experts from UNICEF put concrete numbers on the problem: in 2020 in one in four households could not maintain health controls. And at the end of 2020, vaccination coverage in children under 1 year old already registered a drop 19 points when compared to the coverage achieved in 2016 and up to 8 points less compared to 2019.
Other experts detail the numbers of the debacle in this public health issue: according to the infectologist Florencia Cahn, member of the vaccine commission of the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases (SADI), “today it is estimated that there are 340,000 infants susceptible to preventable diseases, with their basic incomplete schemes for polio, DTP and Hib (the famous quadruple that prevents diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and Haemophilus influenzae b)”. And another 440,000 boys who did not receive the proper reinforcements for DTP and Hib are added.
“Although it was something that had already been noticed, what happened is that during the pandemic many vaccination schemes were cut short,” he explained to NEWS the also president of the Society of Vaccinology and Epidemiology (save). “The concrete thing is that now we have to try to recover the vaccination for almost two complete cohorts. They are around 1.5 million Boys that either they did not start their preventive schemes or that they were interrupted since 2020 due to difficulties in daily medical practices, even the simplest ones, generated by the pandemic.” And he also recalled another example of this situation: a recent outbreak of measles , which was the worst outbreak we had between 2019 and 2020. “We cannot relax with vaccination because if coverage drops, diseases return,” he summarized.
TO DO THIS CAMPAIGN WELL, YOU NEED TO INVEST MANY RESOURCES. THAT IS WHY POLITICAL SUPPORT IS KEY.
Precisely, on that same topic, he highlighted another piece of information that shows the gap we face and that arises from a report prepared by experts from the Nation’s own Ministry of Health. There it is read that “although vaccination coverage above 95% is considered optimal, Since 2020, no vaccine on the national calendar has managed to exceed the value of 80% coverage at the national level.
Of course, the indirect impact caused by the wave of SARS-CoV-2 on prevention and vaccination practices in all age groups was significant. “Without a doubt, the pandemic precipitated the drop in vaccination rates,” said Florencia Lución, president of the Epidemiology Subcommittee of the society that groups pediatricians (SAP). And he explained that “contributed issues related to people’s fear of leaving their homes, the economic difficulties in accessing health centers, the shortage of human resources in vaccinations, limited hours and also the decrease in consultations and regular controls that make it possible to indicate the vaccines that must be received at each age.Finally, he also added his own a low perception of risk of not being immunized by part of the population”.
Plan
Just looking like get it back the until five years ago acceptable vaccination figures -which not only fall in Argentina but in the entire region (see box)- a group of professional societies, among which the Pediatrics, Vaccinology, Infectious Diseases and Microbiology stand out, have been preparing for months a work that summarizes a series of proposals and strategies that seek to reverse this mess of public health. In the document “Improving vaccination coverage: a priority objective” -officially presented a few days ago by Florencia Cahn-, some possible ideas for this task are reviewed, which aim to work on three axes: the community, the health team and the health authorities themselves.
The Plan of scientific societies proposes a strategy based on three axes: the communitythe professionals from Health and the political authorities:
For the community, suggests improving communication that highlights the importance of vaccines to prevent serious diseases, but doing so in a way that increases the perception of the risk posed by vaccine-preventable diseases, although without generating fear. And among the possible actions, it proposes school competitions with prizes, adding non-traditional communication channels and offering vaccines in many places, starting with the primary care centers themselves, to facilitate access opportunities as much as possible.
Regarding the health team, The proposal includes prioritizing the staff and assigning a salary increase to nurses and vaccinators, as well as adding non-regular vaccinators. Another point is to train them better since in many cases they themselves have doubts about whether it is possible and how to recover the schemes. And the example arose that there are still vaccinators, and even doctors, who deny the possibility of giving, for example, the flu if 14 days have not passed after the anti-Covid-19 vaccine And although this medical concept has already been outdated, it is still wrongly used in many cases.
As for the authorities, the proposal is that they make decisions such as developing informative materials, either in printed form or in apps that facilitate vaccination and answers to frequently asked questions. But that they also simplify the nominalization of people and their vaccines. That is that someone -the vaccinator or another administrative employee- loads in the databases the names, ages and vaccines that he has and is receiving received by each person throughout his life. This is not something simple since in many cases the vaccination centers do not even have access to the Internet, which implies taking this data on paper and then uploading it to the digital databases. And this must happen in both the public and private spheres. And they also proposed extending innovative ideas, such as facilitating vaccination “from the car” or organizing “vaccine night”, which have already been tested for Covid.
Finally, something that stood out to NEWS another expert on this subject is that the key to recovery lies in make the political decision. “To recover the issue, the essential thing is work on the ground. You have to plan to go down to the neighborhoods and go with many human resources, vaccinators, administrative personnel who upload the nominal data of those who receive what, drivers, food, and -above all- carry all the available vaccines in a small refrigerator,” he told NEWS the doctor Silvia González Ayala, owner from the chair of infectology of the National University of La Plata. “That is the essential thing. But the truth is that to do it well, you need to invest a lot of resources in these campaigns. That is why full political support is key.”
evil of many
In this Argentine trend Not alone. During a recent meeting held to celebrate Vaccination Week, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) took the opportunity to alert about this problem. According to Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of PAHO, “as a result of interruptions in health services caused by the pandemic, around 2.7 million children in the region They did not receive the essential vaccines needed to keep them healthy. And the falls in the coverage of vaccination programs have been verified throughout the region, from Mexico to Brazil.” According to Etienne, the last two years have back three decades of progress made with vaccines against polio and measles, which creates a real risk for the return of these pathologies. And he called to seize the opportunity: “let’s use the infrastructure developed for vaccination against Covid so that families can catch up in a convenient and accessible way.”
Twitter: @egarabet
Image gallery
