Day: April 25, 2022

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Drop in Vaccines Exposes Latin American Children to Disease, Report Shows

One in four children in Latin America and the Caribbean does not have vaccine protection against three potentially deadly diseases, a U.N. report said Monday, warning of plummeting inoculation rates.

While 90% of children in the region in 2015 had received the vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough (DTP3), by 2020 coverage had dropped to three-quarters, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a regional office of the World Health Organization.

This means that some 2.5 million children were not fully protected — and 1.5 million of them have not had even one dose in the three-shot regimen.

Globally, according to WHO, 17.1 million infants did not receive an initial dose of the DTP3 vaccine in 2020, and another 5.6 million were only partially jabbed.

Outbreaks of preventable diseases “have already occurred” in Latin America and the Caribbean, the agencies said.

In 2013, only five people in the region contracted diphtheria — a bacterial disease that can cause breathing difficulties, heart failure and potentially death.

Five years later, the number was nearly 900.

There has also been a rise in cases of measles — another disease that can be prevented with inoculation — from nearly 500 cases in 2013 to more than 23,000 in 2019, said the statement.

“The decline in vaccination rates in the region is alarming,” said UNICEF regional director Jean Gough.

The reasons were multifold.

“The context in the region has changed in the last five years. Governments have focused their attention on other emerging public health issues such as Zika, chikungunya and more recently COVID-19,” UNICEF neonatal expert Ralph Midy told AFP.

“The existence of migrant populations that are difficult to locate and do not always have access to regular health services, in addition to people living in isolated or hard-to-reach areas, also hinders the vaccination process,” Midy said.

The downward trend started even before the COVID-19 epidemic, which worsened the situation by interrupting primary health care services and causing some people to avoid clinics and hospitals for fear of the virus.

“As countries recover from the pandemic, immediate actions are needed to prevent (vaccine) coverage rates from further dropping, because the re-emergence of disease outbreaks poses a serious risk to all of society,” said Gough.

Source: Voice of America

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US Regulator Approves Gilead’s COVID Drug for Young Children

The U.S. drug regulator on Monday granted the first full approval for treating COVID-19 in children age 28 days and older to Gilead Sciences Inc.’s drug remdesivir.

The move comes months after the agency expanded the drug’s emergency use authorization to include children younger than 12 and weighing at least 3.5 kilograms.

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision makes the drug the first approved COVID-19 treatment for children under 12 years old, the agency said.

The approval is applicable to children who are hospitalized or have mild-to-moderate disease and are at high risk of severe COVID-19.

Source: Voice of America

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Seychelles undertaking breadfruit census for improved food security

As part of a regional project to conserve biodiversity and make use of crop genetic resources, Seychelles is carrying out a survey on its three main islands to quantify the number of breadfruit trees in the country.

Dubbed “Germination,” the project is geared towards improving food security in countries of the Indian Ocean, namely Seychelles, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion, and Tanzania.

The principal agricultural scientist at the Anse Boileau Research Centre, Roy Govinden, told SNA that Seychelles is putting emphasis on breadfruit as it is an undervalued source of carbohydrate that grows in abundance in the country.

“Being a country that imports a lot of the food that we consume, we are quite vulnerable to external shocks as past events have shown us. Should a situation arise where importation of food into the country cannot be maintained, breadfruit is something we can fall back on,” said Govinden.

After completing an inventory on La Digue, the Seychelles Agricultural Agency (SAA) established a population of 311 breadfruit trees on the third most populated island of the island nation. Some areas on the main island of Mahe and the second most populated island of Praslin remain to be covered. The districts found with the largest number of trees are Anse Aux Pins, Anse Royale and Baie Lazare.

“There is a large population of breadfruit in the country but many are not accessible. The trees that we are seeing are quite high and not manageable and as such fruits cannot be harvested,” said Govinden.

Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, also seeks to establish the different varieties of breadfruits to make better use of the fruit based on what they are best suited for.

“At the moment, we have been able to identify two or three varieties – there are breadfruits that are rounder and some tend to be longer, and the colour of the inside of the flesh varies, one is whiter while another has a yellow tint to it. When we get to the categorising stage, we will be better able to identify them,” shared Govinden.

Once the census is completed the agency will redirect its efforts towards educating the population on how to properly trim and manage their breadfruit trees to ensure that fruits can be collected in higher yields.

“There will also be a need to emphasise valorising breadfruits. We will have to educate the population on its benefits, and how to add value to the product,” said Govinden.

Along with cassava, breadfruit used to be a popular and traditional staple food in Seychelles in the years before the regular importation of other staples such as rice, potatoes and bread flour.

The fruit, known locally as friyapen, has a tough green outer skin and a white or yellow potato-like inner texture and can be boiled, grilled, fried, steamed, roasted or more popular eaten cooked in coconut milk called la daube as a dessert.

Govinden shared that there is the possibility to turn the fruit into flour which can also be used to make various food products.

Source: Seychelles News Agency