Flu vaccination will begin on March 25 in most of Brazil

The flu vaccination campaign will begin this year on March 25th, this is what the Ministry of Health confirmed. Generally, the start of the application of vaccines begins between April and May, but due to the increase in the number of respiratory viruses circulating in Brazil, the government decided to bring forward this year's campaign.

Of the five Brazilian regions, only in the North will there be no advance vaccination, as due to climatic differences, the campaign always takes place between November and December. In total, 75 million doses are expected to be applied to the eligible population. Priority groups with comorbidities will be vaccinated first at the Single Health Service, SUS.

The vaccine

The Ministry of Health states that the vaccines that will be applied from March 25th protect against virus strains that will begin to circulate in May, June and July. That's why it's important for the campaign to start a few months before circulation.

The vaccine is trivalent, that is, it contains three types of different strains in its composition, combined with each other. They protect against the variants that will be in circulation at the time. According to the Ministry of Health, flu vaccines can be administered together with others that are part of the SUS vaccination calendar.

Campaign target audience

The target audience for the Flu vaccination campaign is children between six months and six years old, indigenous people between six months and nine years old, pregnant women, health workers, teachers, postpartum women, elderly people over 60 years old, rescue professionals, homeless people, Armed Forces, people with chronic non-communicable diseases and other special clinical conditions (no age limit), population prison system deprived of liberty, including adolescents and young people under socio-educational measures (from 12 to 15 years of age), public road transport workers (buses), port workers, and employees of the deprivation of liberty.

Children who will receive for the first time

The Ministry of Health recommends that children who will receive the vaccine against the Influenza virus for the first time should take two doses of the vaccine at least 30 days apart. After this time, you must return to the health center to complete the vaccination schedule.

Start of distribution

According to the government, from March 20th the four regions that will have the campaign in advance will begin to receive the immunizers. South, Southeast, Central-West and Northeast will begin vaccination on March 25th. In the North region, due to climatic differences in the region and the seasonality of the disease, which begins in the Amazonian winter, its onset will only occur between November and December of this year.

Featured Photo: vaccination against flu begins early in Brazil (Reproduction/Paulo Pinto/X/@agenciabrasil)