29 - 30 January 2008
The Sub-Regional Symposium on New Vaccines: Pneumococcal, Rotavirus and Human Papilloma Virus, was held in Caracas, Venezuela, 29-30 January 2008. Over 85 Public health experts, clinicians, and policy makers from Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, along with representatives of global health agencies examined the evidence available to decision makers, and discussed progress in addressing issues central to vaccine introduction. Safe, new vaccines for rotavirus, pneumococcus and human papilloma virus are available, and some have already been introduced in Latin America. Yet, across the region, where tens of thousands of deaths could be prevented by the new vaccines, nations face a complex equation of whether, how and when to introduce them. The Symposium focused on finding solutions to that equation in the Andean sub-region.