César Augusto Montaño Huerta, undersecretary for economic affairs and international cooperation, issued a statement, entitled “very urgent” to request the ambassadors of Ecuador in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and 16 other diplomatic headquarters, to manage the donation of pentavalent vaccines , bOPV and DTP, all essential in the first year of life of infants, since this drug was not available in the country.
The shortage of vaccines began at the end of 2020, but citizen complaints worsened between January and February of this year, although the reason why there was a shortage of vaccines in Ecuador is because the Government did not make the pertinent payments to the Revolving Fund of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a solidarity cooperation mechanism through which vaccines are purchased for the entire region.
According to a former PAHO official, José Ruales, non-payment would not be the only reason for the Organization not to deliver vaccines to a country. Problems arise when a country does not confirm purchases on time, does not order orderly, or does not adequately plan the number of vaccines it needs.
“There are countries that owe the fund, but they do not stop giving vaccines, as long as the country does the procedure.”
In the official letter MSP-MSP-2021-0433-O, the Government records that there is a shortage of vaccines due to lack of payment to PAHO and César Augusto Montaño confirms that the MSP asked Ecuador’s diplomatic missions to manage 82 thousand doses of vaccines pentavalent, 56 thousand DTP and 95 thousand bOPV.
At the moment, the amount to which the government’s debt with the Pan American Health Organization would amount is unknown.
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