Haiti Among Region's Lowest for Child Vaccination, WHO/UNICEF Report Finds
A WUENIC report ranks Haiti among the five worst-performing countries in the Americas for pediatric immunization coverage, as Cuban and Haitian medical teams aid Venezuela's earthquake response.
Haiti ranks among the five countries with the lowest pediatric vaccination coverage in the Americas, according to WHO/UNICEF Estimates of National Immunization Coverage (WUENIC) data cited by Clarín. The report, published this week, assessed 35 countries in the region across 15 vaccines, with projections for 2025 based on 2024 vaccination records. Clarín reported that the five countries with the worst pediatric vaccination coverage are Argentina, Suriname, Bolivia, Haiti and Venezuela, while the best-ranked were Cuba, Guyana, Chile, El Salvador and Uruguay. In 2025, only eight of the 35 countries in the Americas failed to reach the target of at least one pediatric-calendar vaccine covering 90% of children, according to the report. Separately, Prensa Latina reported that a 31-member Haitian medical brigade — including traumatologists, urologists, surgeons and anesthesiologists — traveled to Venezuela to help treat those affected by earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 that struck on 24 June. Cuba's ambassador in Caracas, Jorge Mayo, met Haitian ambassador Jean Mary Vaval and Haiti's health minister, Sinal Bertrand, at a diagnostic center in La Guaira, where Cuban, Haitian and Venezuelan personnel are jointly providing care. Officials recalled solidarity extended to Haiti after its 2010 earthquake.