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The Ministry of Health admits that there is a high risk of polio return in at least 312 Brazilian cities – 44 in the state of São Paulo. The alert was made Thursday (28) at a meeting with state secretaries and municipal health officials. "It's a very serious situation," said Immunization Program Coordinator Carla Domingues.
Municipalities that have failed to reach 50% of immunization coverage are most at risk of polio. "A city with these indicators has all the conditions to retransmit the disease in our country, it will be a disaster for the health as a whole." The last case recorded in Brazil dates back to 1990. Four years later, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease eradicated in the Americas
The recommendation is that vaccination coverage against polio be superior at 95%. The worst situation is in Bahia, where 15% of municipalities vaccinated less than 50% of children, followed by Maranhão with 14.29%. Across the country, only Rondônia, Espírito Santo and the Federal District do not have high risk cities.
The general picture is very worrying. According to data from the Ministry of Health, last year 22
units of the federation did not reach the coverage considered ideal. Also in 2017, at least 800,000 children have not benefited from the comprehensive vaccination program – which includes three doses of vaccines.
"We turn on the red light," says Carla. The concern arises mainly at a time when the entry of the derived poliovirus was again discussed. In Venezuela, health authorities have considered the possibility that a girl has been infected by this viral mutation.
When vaccine drops are administered to the child, the attenuated virus contained in the vaccine may be present in the environment for four to six months. weeks, creating what is called the herd effect. The problem is that during this period, on very rare occasions, the poliovirus may have contact with other viruses, such as rotavirus, mutate and become infected with the virus.
thus creating a new wave of infections. This hypothesis was rejected in the case of the Venezuelan child, but the concern persists.
The president of the Brazilian Vaccination Society, Isabella Ballalai, observes that the risk increases in cases where immunization coverage is lower. "Where the need to maintain vaccination at 95%."
Isabella called the Brazilian indicator of "unbelievable and inadmissible". Carla notes that the most significant decline has occurred over the past two years. In an attempt to reduce the risk, the Ministry of Health should organize a national polio immunization campaign between August 6 and 31 Other diseases Carla also points out that vaccination coverage rates in the country have considerably decreased. For example, it mentions vaccines such as measles, rubella and mumps, pentavalent (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, haemophilus influenzae type b and polio meningitis) and pneumococcus. . "There was no shortage in any of these cases," he noted.
For her, the indicators show the need to think about what is done at the end of the help. She notes that the vaccination program offers 14 vaccines. "It takes simultaneity to set up a schedule to offer, during a visit to the post, more than one vaccine." In the ideal scheme, he says, parents take the child nine times in the year to the vaccination post. "If it's not done properly, that number goes up to 10, 11, 12," he notes.
Resistance to administering more than one vaccine the same day by health professionals could be resolved by strengthening capacity building. The same thing applies to completing the vaccination forms. Few municipalities follow the recommendation of registering the nominal vaccination. "The notes are made by dose only.This makes it difficult to find children who are late," says Carla
Schedules For her, there is also a need for more rationality in the form of vaccine offerings, such as more flexible schedules that fit the parents' work routine. "The stations run from 8am to 11am and from 2pm to 5pm. Not all parents can take their children at these times several times a year.
The opening of many vaccination rooms would, in turn, be counter-productive. "You need scale, the doses have to be opened and used quickly, otherwise there is waste." The information comes from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo .
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