EDITORIAL: Resume vaccination to capture all minors

Effective medical care is based on the prevention of disease. It is strategic and saves the government and households unnecessary expenses.

For children, the first line of medical care is vaccination, which protects them against common diseases such as polio, pneumonia and tuberculosis (TB).

There are many dangers when children miss vaccination. Many children became victims of polio for the simple reason that they were not vaccinated at the appropriate age, which confined them to a permanent state of health.

We are concerned about the slowdown in the vaccination campaign last year. The official reports, which we publish elsewhere in this edition, show that only 63% of eligible children have been vaccinated, which represents a sharp decline from previous years. Even then, it's a global figure. The situation varies from one county to another with some very lamentable numbers

And the reason for this state of affairs was the protracted strikes last year – first by nurses and then doctors – who paralyzed the public health sector. As we have often argued in the past, strikes by medical workers have a profound impact on the health of the population.

Unfortunately, whenever they occur, the focus is on the obvious and immediate challenges that they present – such as lack of treatment for those admitted to hospitals.

Yet underneath, there are equally disastrous consequences that go unnoticed until they come to haunt us later.

Precisely, that's what happened with the vaccination program.

All is not lost, however. With the statistics available, the government should take corrective measures to reach those who missed the opportunity to be vaccinated.

There is every reason for a targeted campaign to have these children immunized to protect them from life-threatening diseases.

Since 1980, when the government established the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), it has intensified vaccination. year in order to eliminate diseases such as poliomyelitis.

Fairly good results were recorded. That's the reason why we worry when the numbers go down, as was the case last year.

By the time the government says it wants to provide universal health coverage over the next four years, basics like vaccination against preventable diseases are paramount.

Overall, the lesson is that when the health sector faces challenges, authorities must conduct situational badyzes to determine the full impact and institute appropriate interventions. = function () {FB.init ({appId: & # 39; 174023979648743 & # 39 ;, xfbml :! 0, version: & quot; v2.5 & quot;)}; (function (d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName (s) [0]; if (d.getElementById (id)) {return} js = d.createElement (s); js.id = id; js.src = "http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs)}(document,'script',&#39 ; facebook-jssdk & # 39;)) [ad_2]
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