The health authorities of Santa Cruz expressed their concern, this Wednesday, about the low polio vaccination coverage in the department. According to Boris Chang, head of the Expanded Immunization Program (EPI) in Santa Cruz, only 20% of children They have completed the vaccination schedule against this disease this year.
“We are very low in this vaccination group,” lamented Chang during a vaccination campaign carried out at the Pampa de la Cruz educational unit. “We hope that parents will comply with the vaccination of this injectable vaccine, which is safe and much better than previous vaccines,” she added.
The low coverage of vaccination against polio occurs in a context of risk due to presence of the disease in neighboring countries, such as Peru. “This situation warrants that we have the responsibility as parents to protect the health of our children,” Chang emphasized.
HPV
The health official called on parents to take their children to be vaccinated against polio and other diseases such as Human Papillomavirus (HPV), which is also being applied in the current campaign.
“In HPV vaccination we are having very great acceptance by parents,” said Chang. “At the departmental level we have already reached 50% coverage; That is, we have more than 35,000 girls and boys who have already been vaccinated,” she explained.
Authorities expect HPV vaccination coverage to reach 90% or 100% by September or October at the latest.
Influenza
The authorities also reported that the possibility of opening vaccination is being evaluated against influenza to the general population and to children up to 12 years of age, if the desired coverage in risk groups is not achieved.
“Although we have gone through an influenza epidemic, it is well described throughout the endemic channel that we have in our departmental region, which “In the winter season we are probably going to have a new impact from this influenza disease.”Chang explained. “The best thing will be that we are protected and the vaccines will be available to the entire population,” she added.
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