Health Ministers at PAHO approve rubella elimination, increased vaccination coverage

Health ministers from the Americas at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Directing Council have approved a new regional strategy to sustain immunization programs in the Americas, calling on countries to achieve vaccination coverage of more than 95% in all districts and to meet the target of eliminating rubella and congenital rubella syndrome by 2010.

In a resolution approved unanimously, health ministers also asked their countries to find new ways to finance and sustain immunization programs so they can introduce new vaccines against rotavirus, pneumococcus, and human papillomavirus, and to use the PAHO revolving fund to buy new and underutilized vaccines, including those against seasonal influenza and yellow fever.

Noting the successes of smallpox and polio eradication and measles elimination achieved through vaccination programs in the Americas, Gina Tambini, the PAHO's area manager for family and community health, stated: "this program with many achievements also has an unfinished agenda, and we have to work to extend the protection of vaccines to all vulnerable children and women in the region. We still have about one of every three children in Latin America and the Caribbean living in underserved districts, and they all require equitable access to the benefits of immunization."