The countries of the Americas are preparing a huge promotional effort for the fifth year of Vaccination Week in the Americas, which this year aims to immunize some 55 million persons.
The regional launching of the initiative is scheduled Saturday, April 21 in Puerto Iguazu, on the tri-national border between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, with the Ministers of Health of the three countries joining Pan American Health Organization Director Dr. Mirta Roses and other health officials.
Forty five countries and territories are participating in the week by launching a variety of vaccination campaigns, along with other health activities and social communication campaigns to increase awareness of the importance of immunization. The focus of Vaccination Week is to improve vaccination coverage in areas where it is low, to immunize indigenous communities, and to promote the use of new and existing vaccines.
Endorsed by all member countries of PAHO in 2003, the effort has already succeeded in reaching over 147 million children, women, men, and older adults, especially in difficult to reach populations, isolated border communities and municipalities with low immunization coverage.
The immunization outlook in the Americas has improved in the five years since Vaccination Week began as a joint campaign initiated by Andean countries. Each country has set its own targets and goals, ranging from initiatives to target high-risk populations, implement rubella elimination campaigns and follow-up measles vaccination, to the introduction of new vaccines, such as seasonal influenza, pentavalent, and rotavirus.
Inequities remain a barrier to reaching those left behind in the Region, and this is a challenge Vaccination Week addresses by focusing on principles of equity, access, and Pan Americanism, with the following objectives:
- Increase and strengthen routine immunization coverage,
- Improve coverage in isolated and vulnerable populations,
- Continue to promote basic health care through integrated activities
- Keep immunization on the political agendas of Member States
- Improve the awareness of the general population about diseases and vaccines, including the new vaccines on the market, and
- Focus on the risk of importation of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, rubella and polio.
Among the specific goals of countries participating in Vaccination Week in the America?s are: