Hepatitis A, whooping cough, tuberculosis and flu outbreaks expose Argentina’s vaccination gaps

The transparency of Argentina’s online vaccine-coverage map makes the country’s shortcomings difficult to hide. Across every age group, no vaccine has reached the 95% coverage considered necessary for herd immunity, according to infectious-disease specialists quoted in the report.

Alejandra Gaiano, a pediatric infectious-disease doctor and public-health specialist, said the shortfall was already linked to an outbreak of hepatitis A. Coverage averaged 49.4% nationwide at the end of August, while Buenos Aires city had reached only 29%. To meet the appropriate level by the end of the year, vaccination would need to rise by slightly more than 8% each month.

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In Argentina, not a single vaccine in any age group reaches the 95% coverage target needed to guarantee herd immunity.

The figures are especially concerning because Argentina introduced hepatitis A vaccination into its official schedule in 2005 after severe cases of fulminant hepatitis had become a major health problem. Analía Ureña, an infectious-disease doctor and director of the Center for Studies on the Prevention and Control of Transmissible Diseases at Universidad Isalud, said fulminant hepatitis had been the country’s leading cause of liver transplants. She warned that the disease could return despite the availability of a highly effective vaccine.

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Fulminant hepatitis was the leading cause of liver transplants in the country, and we hope it does not happen again because we have a highly effective vaccine to control the disease.

Ureña also stressed that the problem does not affect only children. Adults in risk groups are also advised to receive the hepatitis A vaccine, but they do not always do so. Gaiano said an outbreak of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, was continuing and had caused 14 deaths among babies and children under two between 2025 and the current year. Outbreaks of influenza and tuberculosis have also been reported.

Polio vaccination remains low, with only 50.5% receiving the first dose nationwide, Gaiano said. Many people have never seen a polio outbreak because vaccination eliminated the disease from Argentina and Latin America, although it has not eradicated it globally.

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Many people have never seen a polio outbreak because vaccination eliminated it from our country and Latin America, but it has not eradicated it.

The report also raises concern over measles. Argentina has continued to maintain measles elimination, but specialists warned that the virus is highly contagious, can be deadly for children under one, and can cause severe complications. Low coverage creates a risk that it could reappear.

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With a great deal of work, we continue to sustain measles elimination in Argentina. But it is the most contagious virus in human history, with high mortality among children under one and severe sequelae. There is a risk it could reappear.