The Pan Amer­i­can Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (PA­HO) is call­ing for ur­gent ac­tion to ad­dress gaps in im­mu­niza­tion cov­er­age as coun­tries in the Amer­i­c­as, in­clud­ing the Caribbean, con­front out­breaks of vac­cine-pre­ventable dis­eases such as measles and yel­low fever.

“Over the past five decades, vac­cines have saved 154 mil­lion lives world­wide, re­duc­ing child mor­tal­i­ty by 41 per­cent in the Amer­i­c­as alone,” said PA­HO di­rec­tor, Dr. Jar­bas Bar­bosa, ahead of Vac­ci­na­tion Week in the Amer­i­c­as from April 26 to May 3, 2025.

But he has warned: “Our progress against vac­cine-pre­ventable dis­eases needs a strong and last­ing com­mit­ment to im­ple­ment the ap­pro­pri­ate pub­lic health mea­sures”.