Moroccan Infant Vaccination Rates Drop Amid COVID-19 Fears, Experts Warn

Dr. Afif Moulay Saïd, president of the Vaccination Information League, warns of the worrying decline in infant vaccinations and the dangers to which babies are exposed. "The systematic vaccination of infants under 18 months of age must continue during the covid-19 period, because the postponement or omission of scheduled vaccines will expose these infants to the risk of common childhood infections, such as pneumococcal disease, measles and whooping cough," he warns in a statement.

According to him, vaccination is part of the minimum services. "Any interruption of these vaccination services, even for short periods, will lead to an accumulation of susceptible individuals and a higher probability of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Such epidemics can lead to deaths and an increased burden on health systems, already strained by the response to the covid-19 epidemic," the doctor continues.

For his part, the professor of pediatrics and dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Marrakech, Dr. Mohamed Bouskraoui, declares to Médias24: "It is clear that if we stop the vaccination of children from 0 to 18 months, we risk seeing the reappearance, after covid-19, in three to four months, of the most dangerous epidemics for the child, epidemics that we have begun to forget (measles, mumps, whooping cough, HIB meningitis, pneumococcal and pneumonia, rubella and Rotavirus, etc.)".

In order to avoid the resurgence of epidemics and serious illnesses, the pediatrician calls on the vaccination authorities at the ministry to encourage parents and emphasize the need to respect the vaccination schedule of infants up to the age of 18 months.