Venezuela will require those traveling to the states of Barinas, Aragua, Lara and Portuguesa to be vaccinated against yellow fever at least ten days in advance due to the outbreak of the disease, the government reported.
According to an official note, the requirement will apply to those who “plan to visit during next Easter” those four western entities, who must wear “long-sleeved clothing and repellent in wooded areas to prevent bites” from insects.
The Ministry of Communication indicated that “a special epidemiological surveillance protocol” has been activated and that the population of those states must “go en masse to the immunization centers to stop the spread of the virus.”
“The ideal is that people protect themselves with this vaccine that is given once in a lifetime,” said the Vice Minister for Collective Health Networks, Magda Magris – cited in the note -, who called for “citizen responsibility before starting any tourist transfer.”
Venezuela faces a “health alert” when a total of 36 cases of yellow fever have been confirmed since June of last year, the sectoral vice president of Science, Technology, Ecosocialism and Health, Isabel Iturria, reported on Friday.
He noted that 22 parishes in Aragua, Lara and Portuguesa are prioritized, as well as Barinas, where “there have been the highest number of cases.” He clarified that in Caracas “there is no yellow fever virus.”
Yellow fever vaccines
On the same Friday, the Minister of Health, Nuramy Gutiérrez, assured that the government is acquiring other doses of vaccines to address the outbreak of yellow fever in the country registered after the resurgence of the disease in Latin America since the end of 2024.
The reinforcement of the vaccination campaign occurs after the meeting between the interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, and the representative of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in the country, Armando De Negri Filho.
In the last year, Venezuela has received donations of vaccines against yellow fever, polio, pentavalent, SRP, PCV10 and rotavirus from countries such as India, South Korea, Russia, Brazil and others.
In 2024, the Venezuelan Society of Childcare and Pediatrics indicated that in the last 10 years the Expanded Immunization Program (PAI) failed to achieve the proposed goals in terms of vaccine coverage.
With information from Efe.
