The Ministry of Public Health is strengthening its vaccination strategy nationwide to prevent diseases. The Ministry says that an internal re-engineering has taken place to improve technical and management capacity and be more efficient in reaching out to the population. The Extended Immunization Program (PAI) is the Vaccine-Preventible Agency (Dirección de Immunoprevenibles por Vacunas – DIV) since March 2022. The agency falls under the Deputy Ministry of Collective Health of the Ministry of Public Health.
The director of the DIV, Dr. Lucia Vargas stressed how vaccines have been highly effective in preventing diseases and their spread. The department is active in preventing polio, measles, rubeola, among others.
Information on who has been vaccinated has been automated and is managed in real time. This allows better control of the inventory of vaccines allocated nationwide.
Dr. Vargas says now decisions are made in a timely manner. Moreover, the vaccination status of children is determined regardless of where in the country they receive their vaccinations. She also spoke of the improvements in the cold storage capacity in far away areas.
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Ministry of Public Health
11 July 2022