INTEC researchers affirm that 58.7% of people in Latin America had complete vaccination coverage against COVID 19

SANTO DOMINGO.- Mariana Dauhajre, medical student at Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), together with doctors Manuel Colomé, epidemiologist and researcher at INTEC, and Demian Herrera, postgraduate professor at INTEC and research coordinator at the Doctor Hugo Mendoza Pediatric Hospital, presented their research “Inequalities in vaccination coverage against COVID-19 in the Americas”, in which they showed that 58.7% of people in Latin America had complete vaccination coverage against COVID-19, whose variability was very wide between different countries, including Venezuela, Guyana and Panama with higher dropout rates. high.

“The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the inequalities already present in our country,” said Dauhajre during his speech at the fourth Latin American and Caribbean Pre-symposium on Research in Health Systems and Services of Health Systems Global, organized through the Fullness Foundation and carried out at INTEC with the objective of enhancing the debate and exchange of experiences between researchers and policymakers around interdisciplinary discussion tables, as well as promoting the presentation of summaries by Latin American and Caribbean authors in the Call for the Global Symposium to to be held in Nagasaki, Japan in 2024.

The event consisted of four panels in which a total of 16 investigations developed by students from different universities in the country were presented. In his presentation focused on the correlation between vaccination coverage against COVID-19 and the Human Development Index in the Americas region, Dauhajre expressed the need to implement strategies aimed at addressing inequalities in Human Development Index (HDI) countries. lowest in the region, including Haiti, Nicaragua, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

Likewise, he highlighted the need for an inclusive approach in vaccination coverage against COVID 19, as he explained that, by March 2022, almost 70% of the COVID-19 vaccines distributed were directed to upper-middle- and high-income countries. “This and other factors exacerbated existing inequalities,” she said.

Latin American and Caribbean Pre-symposium on Research in Health Systems and Services

Daniel Maceira, representative of Health Systems Global and the VIII World Symposium in Latin America, explained that the reason for this program of Pre-Regional Conferences is to bring together the community that works in health services to propose improvements in the health systems and policies of Latin America and the Caribbean. “The idea is to use these forums to understand what we are discussing, translate them into an idea that can be understood globally and capture it on a slide to share at the World Symposium,” he said about the activity to be held in Nagaski, Japan.

The four panels addressed topics related to social determinants, environment and health context; prioritization mechanisms in health decision-making, strategies to promote equity in health care and health profiles of health management, as well as some debates and conversations on the design and implementation of policies for equitable health systems and services and effective.

The Pre-Symposium was organized in the country by the Plenitude Foundation, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Public Health, INTEC, Pedro Henríquez Ureña University (UNPHU), Iberoamerican University (UNIBE), the Environmental Commission of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), the Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic, the Convention Inter-American for health policies and Two Oceans in Health.

On behalf of INTEC, Dr. Pedro Luis Castellanos, research professor, and Eugenio Gómez, coordinator of the Master's Degree in Public Health and Epidemiology, of INTEC, were part of the organizing committee. Yocastia De Jesús, director of Collective Health of the Ministry of Public Health, was responsible for welcoming everyone present at the activity.

Health Systems Global (HSG) is the international research society in health systems and services that invites academic leaders, sector policy makers and members of civil society every two years to participate in its World Symposium. The next one will be held in Nagasaki, Japan in 2024.