Haiti Presents Plan to Vaccinate 90 Percent of Children Under 1 - United States of America

Haiti has finalized a plan to ensure immunization against the country’s most prevalent childhood diseases for at least 90 percent of children under 1 by 2015.

Haitian health authorities presented the plan this week to a group of international partners convened by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). The plan reflects the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population’s determination to re-launch routine vaccination efforts, which were lagging—relative to other countries of the Americas—even before the earthquake.

More than 2,000 Haitian children under 5 die annually of rotavirus (which causes diarrhea), while thousands more die of other vaccine-preventable diseases.

The plan’s specific goals include:

  • increasing immunization coverage from around 60 percent to 90 percent among children under 1;
    maintaining the country free of polio, measles, and rubella;
  • eliminating maternal and neonatal tetanus by 2015;
  • introducing new rotavirus and pneumococcal vaccines, as well as the pentavalent vaccine which protects against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, Hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), which is a bacteria responsible for some types of meningitis and pneumonias;
  • and improving immunization surveillance for the early detection of vaccine-preventable diseases.  

PAHO/WHO is supporting the Ministry of Public Health and Population by coordinating the participation of partners who are expected to support the plan in a variety of ways, from funding to supporting building cold storage for the vaccines and provide training for health care workers who will deliver the vaccines.

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Source: Pan American Health Organization