Vaccine-preventable diseases and their impact on Latin American children

Abstract

A joint meeting of the Latin American Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, the Dominican Society of Pediatrics and the Dominican Society of Vaccinology was held in the Dominican Republic. This report highlights the most relevant issues that were presented and discussed about vaccine-preventable diseases, their epidemiology and impact in Latin American children, the need to move forward and expand national immunization programs and the economical and political obstacles to introduce ‘new’ vaccines. These include those against Streptococcus pneumoniae, rotavirus, hepatitis A, varicella, Neisseria meningitidis, Bordetella pertussis, influenza and human papillomavirus, among others.

Keywords::

• children
• community-acquired pneumonia
• conference
• Latin America
• pediatric infectious diseases
• vaccine-preventable diseases
• vaccines

Financial & competing interests’ disclosure

None of the authors are employees of any pharmaceutical company. R Ulloa-Gutierrez has served as an invited speaker for Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth, Pfizer and Merck; on advisory boards for Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline and Wyeth; and as chairman and cochairman for Sanofi Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline. G Miño has served on advisory boards for GlaxoSmithKline and Merck; and as a cochairman for Wyeth, but has no other conflicts of interest to declare. C Odio has served as invited speaker for Sanofi Pasteur and Merck, but has no conflicts of interest to declare. ML Avila-Aguero has no conflicts of interest to declare during the last 5 years. J Brea has served as an invited speaker for Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth, Pfizer and Merck; on advisory boards for Sanofi Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.