2024-04-02 17:06:00
The unprecedented dengue epidemic has already been recorded for more than 180 thousand infections and 129 deaths. Although the National Immunization Commission (Conain) has just recommended to the Government, last week, to move forward with the implementation of the vaccine, the Ministry of Health used this Tuesday in a statement a unusual argument to continue stopping this public health tool.
“From the National Government, it will not be endorsed that politics or the media add up fear and confusion, and progress will continue with the conviction of preserving the health of the population. We urge companies linked to production of vaccines to avoid pressures that seek to rush decisions that may put Argentines at risk,” says the Health statement.
The statement adds that “with the aim of bringing clarity to the population, the Ministry of Health of the Nation, in its role as the governing body in charge of defining an immunization strategy as a Public Health policy, highlights that this decision carries an enormous responsibility and cannot be subject to the interest of certain sectors that misinform and generate concern”.
It should be remembered that Conain recommended, in a document dated March 7, but published only last week, to start using the dengue vaccine focused on those populations and ages who are suffering the most from dengue in the country. However, the Government continues to argue that it is hasty to do so.
Before Conain signed its minutes, the official argument was that the vaccine could not be included in the national vaccination schedule because the experts did not recommend it. Now that this alternative has been – for the moment – ruled out and that the recommendation is to use it for specific groups, the Government’s considerations point elsewhere. The result remains the same: the vaccine that can prevent serious illness and death from dengue You will have to keep waiting.
The argument of the Ministry of Health
The Ministry goes back a year: “The Anmat approved the safety of the Qdenga vaccine in April 2023, but since that moment neither the previous government, neither the infectologists, nor the international organizations They reached consensus to recommend it as a strategy to include it in the national vaccination calendar. The vaccine continues to undergo studies to establish its effectiveness according to the age range and endemic regions. In this process, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet authorized it.”
It continues: “In the same sense, the aforementioned vaccine It is not a tool that is validated to control the transmission of the disease in the context of the outbreak, as expressed by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in a recent report presented on the situation of dengue in the region.”
He then recalls that, in a completely different context, “there was another attempt to produce a dengue vaccine that became known as Dengvaxia, a vaccine made with weakened live microbes (attenuated), which was intended to be a solution but did not obtain the expected results.
In this way, it concludes that “for all the above, the evaluation task, led by the Ministry, will continue to be carried out with seriousness and health commitmentwithout giving room to those who seek the business development to the detriment of the health of Argentines”.
Finally, he states that “the objective is collect sufficient evidencetogether with the National Immunization Commission and PAHO, to determine a targeted immunization program by age range that is safe and effective.”
The Qdenga vaccine was endorsed by Conain for use in targeted population groups. Photo: ReutersAccording to the Government, “with this premise, the fight against dengue will continue, based on scientific evidence and not in press operations, maintaining permanent contact with all the health ministers of the 24 jurisdictions, leaving aside any partisan differences. “The policies implemented so far have had the consensus of all the country’s health authorities.”
The statement was posted on the X network account of the Ministry of Health, but there was a detail that caught the attention of an expert on these issues, and it was the fact that the text did not end with the signature of the Minister of Health, Mario Russo. “Communications of this nature are signed by the minister,” he observed. Regarding this, Ministry sources limited themselves to explaining: “It is along the lines that we have been reporting.”
The official statement also spread the blame due to the current record epidemic in the previous Government: “Today we are suffering the consequences of the lack of prevention that existed last year, where the corresponding work was not done. The same thing happened on the part of the national executive who did not purchase larvicides for the provinces since 2022. We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past.”
About the striking lack of repellents, which It has been affecting the population since January but it deepened during this last extra long week, the Ministry of Health did not give any explanations. The laboratory that supplies more than 80 percent of the market attributed it to a 300 percent increase in demand in one year, but the authorities did not explain what the contingency plan could be in these cases.
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