UN TO STEP UP IMMUNIZATION IN LATIN AMERICA

A regional United Nations meeting recently called for new funding to ensure immunization at more than 95 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean and to meet the target of eliminating rubella and congenital rubella syndrome by 2010.

Health ministers at a meeting of the UN Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a regional office of the World Health Organization, adopted a document that seeks new ways to finance programs for countries to introduce new vaccines against rotavirus, pneumococcus and human papillomavirus, as well as vaccines against seasonal influenza and yellow fever.

Although PAHO funding, which helps Latin American countries buy at bulk prices, was used to purchase $154 million in vaccines last year, new vaccines will require an increase in working capital, the document says. Estimated annual increases will require additional voluntary contributions from countries or donors since there is at present insufficient working capital to keep up with demands for new vaccines like influenza and rotavirus, it noted.