The national flu vaccination campaign begins this Monday (4), with a two-month duration forecast, until June 3. With the distribution of 80 million doses of the vaccine against Influenza, the Ministry of Health expects to immunize 76.5 million people from the groups considered priority.
According to the ministry, D-day of national mobilization is scheduled for April 30 and the campaign will be divided into two stages: the first between 4/4 and 2/5, and the second between 3/5 and 3/6.
In the initial period, the elderly aged 60 years or older and health workers will be vaccinated. The second stage includes the following groups: children from 6 months to under 5 years old. pregnant and postpartum women, indigenous peoples, teachers, people with permanent disabilities, security forces and the Armed Forces, truck drivers and road public transport workers, port workers, prison staff and the population deprived of liberty.
The Ministry of Health says that flu vaccination is a strategy “to minimize the load of the virus, reducing symptoms, which can also be confused with those of Covid-19“.
According to the latest epidemiological bulletin from the Ministry of Health, until March 19, 4,917 cases of Influenza resulted in hospitalizations throughout Brazil this year. Most of them (2,023) are in the Southeast region.
Of the total number of Influenza cases that resulted in hospitalization, 1475, or 30%, affected people in age groups excluded from the group prioritized by SUS, from 6 to 59 years old.
The influenza vaccine used by the Unified Health System (SUS) is produced by the Butantan Institute. The formulation is updated annually so that the dose is effective in protecting against the main strains of the virus in circulation, such as H1N1, H3N2 (including the Darwin strain, responsible for an outbreak in late 2021) and type B.
Measles
The city of São Paulo also starts the vaccination campaign against measles and polio. Against measles, children aged six months and under five years of age must be vaccinated, in addition to health professionals and those born after 1960.
Against polio, all children under the age of five with delayed vaccination or without a vaccination history are eligible. Immunization will be carried out at Basic Health Units (UBSs) and Outpatient Medical Assistance (AMAs)/Integrated UBSs, from 7 am to 7 pm.
The Municipal Health Department (SMS) intends to vaccinate 95% of the 709,273 eligible for immunization. For health professionals, the public estimate is 585,913 workers who work in the city.
In 2016, Brazil received certification of measles elimination by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). However, in 2018, the virus was reintroduced into the country, causing a new outbreak with 9,325 cases in Brazil.
In 2019, the municipality of São Paulo recorded 9,347 confirmed cases, with five deaths. The following year, 454 cases and one death were confirmed, and in 2021, seven cases were confirmed and no deaths were recorded.
SMS says that vaccination is essential to fight measles. In 2019, the capital reached the goal and immunized 98.65% of the target audience. In 2020 and 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, coverage was below the target, covering 85.42% and 83.24%, respectively.
Regarding polio immunization, the most recent year with vaccination coverage above 90% was 2015, when 95% of the target audience was immunized. In 2020, the rate was 81.95%; and 77.99% in 2021.
The record of the last confirmed case in Brazil occurred in the city of Sousa, in Paraíba, in 1989. In the state of São Paulo, the last case recorded was in 1988, in the municipality of Teodoro Sampaio.
Source: CNN Brasil
