Washington, DC, (PAHO) April 8, 1999: Immunization experts from all over the Americas will meet April 12-16 in Ottawa, Canada to look at vaccine issues and chart the course of immunization programs in the Americas.
The Pan American Health Organization's Technical Advisory Group on Vaccine Preventable Diseases brings together experts in vaccines, disease surveillance, laboratories, research, quality control, safety, financing and production, to discuss key issues. These include measles eradication in the Americas, new horizons in the control of rubella, the re-emerging problem of yellow fever, keeping the Americas polio-free, research on new vaccines, and related topics.
Regional vaccine campaigns save the lives of more than 200,000 children in Latin America and the Caribbean each year, according to PAHO. Currently over 80 percent of children in the Americas under 1 year old are vaccinated against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, poliomyelitis, measles and tuberculosis. When PAHO's Expanded Program on Immunization started 20 years ago, that figure was only 25 percent. Thanks to the broad-based support in the hemisphere in promoting vaccination, the Americas are the only region in the world to have eliminated polio and are on track to eradicating measles -- which kills 1 million people worldwide each year -- by 2000. The eradication plan aims for 95 percent vaccination coverage in all districts of all countries in the region and periodic follow-up campaigns targeting pre-school children
Measles eradication in the Americas is a primary focus of the meeting. Since
1994, when Ministers of Health of the Americas adopted the goal of eradicating
measles from the Western Hemisphere by the year 2000, the countries have made
tremendous progress. PAHO's campaign to eliminate measles from the Americas by
the year 2000 succeeded in cutting cases from 250,000 in 1990 to 2,109 in 1996.
However, staggered outbreaks occurred in Argentina, Bolivia, Bra
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Contact: Daniel Epstein
epsteind@paho.org
202-974-3459
Pan American Health Organization
8-Apr-1999