About 25 million boys and girls do not receive vaccines

From April 22 to 29, the 21st Vaccination Week in America (VWA) will be held to promote equality and access to vaccination in all countries of the region.

Every year, some 25 million children and girls are not accepted vaccines which could protect them from various diseases, i.e. close to 70,000 minors worldwide are no longer vaccinated every day, increasing the chances that they will be exposed to preventable pathologies.

At least that’s what Unicef ​​stated, explaining that for the first time in the last three decades, society is witnessing the largest continuous decline in the number of children vaccinated.

“This decline in coverage, as stated by International organizationdue to the interruption of medical services as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, the conflict which
some countries, population movementsamong others,” explained Sandra Aramburo, CEO of Sanofi’s COPAC vaccines.

In that context, the challenge is to recover what has been lost, in terms of immunization, so that through vaccines we continue to contribute to saving millions of lives from diseases such as measles or polio.

In November 2022, World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern about the risks arising from reduced measles vaccination coverage.

According to the WHO, in 2021 there were almost 40 million children who did not receive doses of the vaccine against this pathology (25 million from the first administration and another 14.7 million from the second).

Immunization prevents between 3.5 and 5 million deaths per year from a variety of preventable diseases.

Panama has one of the most comprehensive vaccination programs in the region, implementing a scheme that protects against 30 immune-preventable diseases such as tuberculosis, diphtheria,
polio, pneumococcus, flu, chicken pox, measles, mumps and consists of a total of 23 vaccines.

However, there is still a fear of certain vaccines among the population, which is reflected in the low vaccination rate of minors against covid-19.

40% of children between the ages of 5 and 11 are vulnerable to infection or death from covid-19 because they do not have any dose of the vaccine, according to a report by the Expanded Program on Immunization (PAI).

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Within the framework of VWA, Sanofi is carrying out the campaign “Protect yourself, the flu will not stop us”, which raises the awareness of the population, especially those at high risk, about the importance of vaccination against this disease, which causes 3 to 5 million serious cases every year.