11,000 Children in the Region missing Important Vaccinations

By Rashaed Esson

Staff Writer

April 28, 2023 – Dr. Margherita Ghiselli, PAHO Immunization Advisor during a PAHO press conference update on vaccination on Thursday, April 20th, 2023, revealed that more than eleven thousand children in the Caribbean region below 1 years old, nearly 1 in 10, are shockingly not fully vaccinated.

There are places in the Caribbean where medical services, particularly those for vaccination are not in the reach of residents. Additionally, it is quite common in the region for people to display a lack of confidence in vaccines for a number of reasons. Ghiselli highlighted this, stating that the number of unvaccinated children are linked to inaccessibility and doubtfulness because of fake news.

“this is due in part to services not always being available but also to a large degree,  to vaccine hesitancy which is linked to misinformation,” she maintained.

She also said the pandemic impacted coverage rates.

The potential consequences of this is the Caribbean is left unprotected as new outbreaks are possible, especially since the Caribbean is a tourism hit spot; in fact, its number one industry, hence the importance of filling those gaps in the region’s vaccination coverage, as pointed out by Ghiselli.

To counter these issues, PAHO is collaborating with ministries of health and partners across the region to bring about a significant increase in vaccination coverage and to further educate the general public and health care workers on vaccines and vaccination.

Ghiselli stated also that PAHO, UNICEF and other collaborators which were not named, have surveys and data collection tools to better understand the concerns surrounding covid vaccines among the people for instance, doubt of the vaccine safety especially given the speed at which they were developed, and the efficacy since people can still become infected whether it be asymptomatic or mild, according to results stated by Ghiselli.

To further increase vaccine coverage, PAHO has also been working with Caribbean member states to fortify their vaccination programs and “close immunity gaps.”

Not only that, they are also making efforts to conduct behavioural research to aid in education on Immunization studies and Communication tools for the general public, health workers and decision makers alike.

Furthermore, PAHO agents are in close workings with professional associations to ensure the involvement of vaccine and vaccination training in the curriculum of medical schools, nursing schools and other associated institutions to encourage advocacy around vaccines.