Measles: the campaign ends and almost a third of the children have not been vaccinated

NICOLÁS MALDONADO
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In three days ends the national vaccination campaign against measles, rubella and mumps and, as acknowledged by the Ministry of Health, nearly one-third of the infant population to be vaccinated is still not vaccinated. With the outbreak of measles in the region, the initiative to strengthen the protection of Argentinian children has been particularly weak in our province, where the vaccination rate was one of the lowest in the country.

In this worrisome context, the health authorities of the nation have urged families of children aged between 13 months and 4 years old to take advantage of the last days of the campaign to get them vaccinated, which is "obligatory and free", so from: to achieve a higher coverage rate in this way.

When evaluating the results of the national measles vaccination campaign, which badumes an additional dose of triple-virus vaccine, the health authorities confirmed what was feared: a high percentage of the population targeted by the measles vaccine. The initiative had not been taken to vaccinate Of the 2,817,000 children in the target population, only 2,054,779 received the additional dose on 18 November. "We still need to vaccinate about 750,000 children, so coverage was 73% nationwide," said Immunopreventable Disease Control Director Cristian Biscayart.

"The national vaccination campaign against measles, rubella and mumps is a regrettable example of the lack of effectiveness of these actions 80% of targeted children should be vaccinated in October and the rest in November, but November 18 , 73% of the population had been vaccinated far from the expected 90% The most serious situation occurred in the province of Buenos Aires, where only 59% of the people had been vaccinated The results were different from a municipality to the other but without reaching the goal, "said Silvia González Ayala, director of the chair of infectiology of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of UNLP, yesterday.

As noted by Gonzalez, who also incorporates the Vaccine Commission of the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases (SADI), this campaign has had the rare result of a year in which "there has been a discontinuity in the provision of vaccine vacancies (as in the case of tetravalent conjugate meningococcus, tetravalent human papillomavirus, Sabin bivalent poliovirus and chicken pox).

The problem was due to "different reasons", according to the infectious disease: the lack of leadership at different levels; the timely provision of inputs (vaccines and single-use equipment for its application) or the allocation of resources such as overtime or staff augmentation; the depletion of vaccinators with more tasks and without stimuli; and weak / no spread in the media, among other causes. "