The Ministry of Health wants to diversify vaccine suppliers to avoid gaps in the supply of vaccines in the country and is considering creating a platform to monitor stocks and monitor the distribution of doses throughout the country.
The measures were announced this Monday, 25th, at a press conference to provide clarification on the shortage of vaccines in some locations. Eleven states and the Federal District registered a lack of vaccines last week. According to the ministry, the problems are specific and occur due to routine complications in the production of vaccines.
“An important action is to diversify the supplier laboratories so that we have options. This is an action that is already underway. For example, with varicella (against chicken pox), we already have three suppliers, one local and one international (the third is the Pan American Health Organization)”, stated Eder Gatti, director of the Department of the National Immunization Program (PNI ).
“The same for meningitis vaccines. We have more than one supplier precisely to diversify and not leave the program hostage to a single contract”, he added.
Minister Nísia Trindade gave an opening speech, but left the press conference before answering journalists’ questions to attend a meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In her speech, she stated that the government has vaccination as the “most absolute priority” and reinforced that she took office in a scenario in which millions of doses were close to expiry, with no stock control.
“The increase in vaccination coverage remains a reality. As I have stated, we cannot talk about vaccine shortages in Brazil, proof of this is that this Saturday there was a D-Day in several municipalities. A D-day of vaccination would be impossible with a vaccine shortage,” he said.
Nísia stated that “there are specific issues” involving some vaccines and that the department has found solutions for each of them.
According to the state secretariats, the vaccines with scarce stocks until the 18th were: covid-19, varicella (chickenpox), triple viral (measles, mumps and rubella), tetraviral (measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox), yellow fever , DTP (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis), dTpa (acellular version of the tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccine), HPV (which protects girls against cervical cancer and boys against penile cancer), meningococcal ACWY (against types A, C, W and Y of meningitis), hepatitis A, hepatitis B and rabies.
Tool to monitor stocks
According to the department’s executive secretary, Swedenberger Barbosa, a tool is being built at the ministry to assist in the management of stocks and purchases of vaccines, inputs and medicines. The measure, which does not yet have a launch date, would help entities to make decisions more quickly within the scope of management in the Unified Health System (SUS).
“(Currently) These are outdated systems, which do not communicate and are incomplete. Therefore, these are situations that make it very difficult for the manager to act”, said the secretary.
“This platform will guarantee interoperability of systems, update systems, and have a set of information made available to the Union, States and municipalities simultaneously”, added Barbosa. For him, the tool will avoid any conflict between the federal, state and municipal spheres, as the data will be publicly exposed.
In September, a study by the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM) showed that 64.7% of the 2,415 cities surveyed reported a lack of vaccines. At the time, the ministry issued a technical note pointing out problems with suppliers.
This content was originally published in Vaccines: government wants to diversify suppliers and system to monitor stocks on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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