According to information from the Ministry of Health’s Influenza Panel, until this Friday (7), 16 states have already immunized 70% of the population against influenza.
The federative units are: Amapá, Alagoas, Maranhão, Piauí, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Sul, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, Mato Grosso do Sul, Sergipe, Tocantins, Goiás, Amazonas, Mato Grosso and Ceará.
São Paulo is close to the mark, with 69.4% of those vaccinated against influenza. In the state, there were registered until December 2031 cases and 71 deaths by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SRAG) of flu. Due to the advance of the H3N2 variant, 85% of infections and 77% of deaths occurred between November and December.
The federal government has already distributed 80 million doses, of which 67.9 million have already been applied. However, the target audience is 79.7 million people.
Prevention becomes essential at the current stage of the flu outbreak in the country. The vaccine available this year was not designed to contain precisely the strain that is in circulation, called Darwin. It is among the mutations chosen by the World Health Organization (WHO) last year.
Every year, WHO chooses two influenza A subtypes (one H1N1 type and the other H3N2 type) and two influenza B strains (Yamagata and Victoria strains).
The Darwin strain, identified in samples collected by the so-called sentinel units of influenza surveillance, belongs to the group of H3N2 viruses, but this year, the mutation chosen for the vaccine was another, the strain called Hong Kong.
On January 4, the Butantan Institute, producer of the flu vaccine adopted in Brazil by the Unified Health System (SUS), informed that the immunizing agent with the Darwin strain is already being developed. The trivalent vaccine is also composed of the H1N1 virus and the B strain. According to the entity, the delivery of batches of vaccine to the federal government must be made between March and April.
Tests carried out by Butantan showed that the current vaccine, in use in the country, proved capable of providing protection against H3N2 influenza (Darwin), even without the strain in its composition.
“The vaccine we have today has a cross-protection against Darwin, less than the specific vaccine, but it does. We saw this in the reagents we use in quality control, in reactions in vitro. Reagent from the previous strain reacts like a new strain. So there is this possibility, this level of protection”, said Ricardo Oliveira, production director at the Butantan Institute, in a statement.
Reference: CNN Brasil
