Immunizations

This document describes the guidelines of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for evaluating the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) at the country level. It is a response to the countries’ need to improve the use of their technical and financial resources, to the recommendations of the Technical Advisory Group of the EPI, and to the mandates of the governments of the countries of the Hemisphere themselves.

The book was designed by PAHO to provide health professionals with a quick reference tool for these five diseases and the vaccines used to prevent them. The guide summarizes clinical information on these diseases; outlines the public health strategies currently available to control and prevent them, including surveillance and vaccination; and examines the existing monovalent vaccines.

 

 

American Regional Commission for Certification of Poliovirus Laboratory Containment and Verification of Poliofree Status (AMR RCC)
FINAL REPORT Brasilia, Brazil

The strategies that made polio eradication in the Americas possible are the same ones currently being implemented on a global scale and, essentially, those that will make it possible to keep the countries of the Americas polio-free: to achieve and maintain high vaccination coverage and adequate epidemiological surveillance.

This publication offers a unique approach to the strategies that have made the elimination of neonatal tetanus in the Americas possible. The guide provides up-to-date information and describes innovative field techniques that can be adapted and applied throughout the Region.

Yellow fever remains an important public health problem in the Americas. Occasional cases of jungle yellow fever and the proliferation of Aedes aegypti across the Hemisphere are evidence of the continued high risk of the reurbanization that this disease continues to pose.

This PAHO/WHO statement provides results of the investigation of serious adverse events that occurred in October 2007 following administration of yellow fever vaccine (17DD substrain) manufactured by Bio-Manguinhos, Brazil.

A previous PAHO/WHO statement on the reported events was issued on 2 November 2007 and recommended temporary suspension of specific lots of the vaccine.