The topic is taboo in the National Palace. The legacy of Dr. Hugo López-Gatell’s time as a powerful Undersecretary of Health established the narrative that It is not true that there is a lack of vaccines, that everything is a hoax by the enemies of the regimefrom the powerful pharmacists who are angry because they lost privileges.
The truth is that respectable bodies such as the UNAM or the Early Institute, serious in their methodology, see that since the emergence of Covd-19 There are not enough biologicals to supply even the basic picture of vaccines required by Mexican boys and girls.
No less than yesterday, The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) recommended being alert in Mexico due to an appearance of suspected or confirmed cases of measles or rubella, which could be imported from other countries and generate outbreaks of varying magnitude among unvaccinated people.
The University Research Program on Epidemiological and Emerging Risks (PUIREE) pointed out that, In the last 15 years, vaccination coverage has not reached optimal levels in Mexicoso many young people fundamentally have no protection against these diseases, especially measles.
For her part, Renata Díaz, a researcher at the Early Institute, assured this space that in 2019 Mexico was already part of the ten countries with the highest number of boys and girls not immunized against some diseases: tenth for cases of diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough and eighth for measles.
Throughout 2023 and until January 27, there have been no confirmed cases of measles in Mexico, according to the epidemiological bulletin of the Ministry of Health, but researchers see that the problem will be reflected in a few years, not now.
An Early Institute study reveals that the Universal Vaccination Program has serious problems, since according to one of the parameters to evaluate its performance, which is the number of doses applied, it indicates that these have experienced a significant reduction.
Likewise, today there is no certainty of effective coverage of the complete vaccination schedule, nor by type of vaccine. It is not possible to know the number of girls and boys who have been vaccinated and how many have not, nor distinguish vaccines that are applied at the recommended age from those applied extemporaneously.
For all of the above, this academic institute for child protection ensures that It is urgent to design plans to serve the thousands of boys and girls with incomplete schemes; strengthen the Universal Vaccination Program with resources, infrastructure and trained personnel; have reliable and timely information from national and state coverage; improve inter-institutional coordination of the national health system and expand promotion of the application of vaccines, among others.
Regarding the vaccine against Human Papilloma, which must be applied to girls aged 13 and 14, which also had a significant delay, the Health authorities of some entities, among them from Mexico Citythey began an intensive vaccination campaign last September when they saw that a serious health problem was brewing in the medium term due to the problem that came to exist in the application.
In short, despite the permanent denial of the authorities, the issue of childhood vaccination is a red light since we are close to seeing the resurgence of diseases that have already been eradicated in Mexico, such as diphtheria or measles.
ajiemenez@oem.com.mx