Outside a half-built orphanage on a desolate Haitian plain, dozens of children, foreign diplomats, government ministers and international health officials launched the first pan-American immunization week on Saturday, which began simultaneously in all 35 countries of the Americas.
Some 200 Haitian children marched in a circle, waving flags from countries across the hemisphere and sporting T-shirts that read in Creole "Vaccination is an act of love."
Fond Parisien, near Haiti's southeast border with the Dominican Republic, is one of the most impoverished towns in the poorest country in the Americas, and that was the point: "The impact of the campaign is to reach the unreachable," said Mirta Roses Periago, director of the Pan American Health Organization, which organized the initiative with the UN Children's Fund.
The goal is to immunize 40 million children against measles, tetanus and other such easily preventable diseases that kill thousands of young people around the world every week, according to Nils Kastberg, UNICEF regional director for the Americas.
According to UNICEF, the priorities are vaccinating children against measles, polio and rubella, but some countries have different needs. Brazil, for example, is focusing on protecting the elderly against influenza.
The last regional outbreak of polio occurred on the island of Hispaniola. In 2000, eight cases were reported in Haiti. This was the first report of polio in the region since 1991, when it was found in Peru. Also in 2000, 1,500 cases of measles were reported in Haiti.
A quick immunization campaign was launched that wiped out both diseases by the end of 2001, said James Dobbins, a Haiti-based data consultant for PAHO.
But Jon Kim Andrus, chief of PAHO's immunization unit, said Haiti's recent political upheaval created the kind of economic and social climate that can trigger another outbreak, with the infrastructure destroyed and government health workers left unpaid.
"The government of Haiti can't purchase a syringe let alone a vaccine, so everything must be donated," said Chris Barrett, head of the US AID health program in Haiti.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese