Health organization urges increased polio vaccinations in the Americas

World Today

Health organization urges increased polio vaccinations in the Americas

The Pan American Health Organization, or PAHO, is urging countries in the Americas to redouble efforts to vaccinate children against polio, or poliomyelitis, to avoid a comeback of the highly contagious disease eradicated from the continent in 1994.

Last year, vaccination rates in Brazil, considered Latin America’s immunization champion, hit the lowest level in nearly a decade.

Lucrecia Franco reports from Rio de Janeiro.