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Peru and Nicaragua are the first
Latin American countries to initiate a program of mass
vaccination against influenza AH1N1 sponsored by the
World Health Organization (WHO), a body that has donated
the first dose of vaccine produced by the Swiss firm
Novartis.
In Peru, the President of the
Republic, Alan García Pérez, began on Monday to give
free vaccinations against the virus to an estimated
three million people in the highest risk groups.
Peru will perform the immunization in
three stages: the first includes the start of the
immunization of health personnel who have contact with
the care of patients in health facilities under the
jurisdiction of Lima and Callao, of which 595 have
already received thousand of doses.
Coverage for the Indigenous
Population
The second phase involves the
initiation of the protection of individuals with
co-morbidity factors after 6 months of age on and the
extent of vaccination of health regions nationwide, the
stage will begin in the second half of March this year.
The third stage involves the
initiation of vaccination for pregnant women (from the
fourth month of gestation) and indigenous or native
people from April this year. To this end, in March they
will receive the other vaccines which would bring more
than 3 million doses.
Communication Programs in
Nicaragua
As for Nicaragua, Maria Cristina
Pedreira, advises the Expanded Program on Immunization
of the WHO, and said the first 110thousand doses of
vaccine received by Nicaragua is produced by the Novarti
laboratory in Switzerland.
To ensure the success of the
vaccination goals nationally, the Ministry of Health in
the Central American country, last week held a two-day
workshop to orient its technical staff on the
distribution and use of the vaccine according the
standards of quality and safety.
Vaccination, to be held in Nicaragua
from the 15th
of March to the 15th
of April, will focus on priority groups for the Ministry
of Health, among which are all health workers, public
and private, pregnant women and patients with chronic
diseases.
The workshop was attended by over 60
professionals from areas of the National Immunization
Program, Epidemiology and Social Communication of the
Ministry of Health from the country's 17 departments who
received vaccine specifications, revised operating plans
for distribution and implementation, and developed
communication plans to mobilize the priority groups to
be vaccinated, since they are at the greatest risk of
complications if they acquire influenza A H1N1.
Social Mobilization and Community
The technical equipment of the local
systems at the Ministry of Health will be responsible
for ensuring the implementation of the vaccine within
one month of meeting all quality standards and carrying
out social mobilization and community, and the
establishment partnerships with shareholders and
partners to achieve the goals of national vaccination.
The WHO and UNICEF, amongst other
international agencies, provide technical and financial
support to the Ministry of Health of Nicaragua, as part
of the vaccination campaign to prevent AH1N1.
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