Ministry of Health instructs residents of Amazonas to give polio vaccine to children

A case of poliomyelitis in an indigenous child in the district of Manseriche in Peru has the Brazilian Ministry of Health on alert. The disease that has been eradicated in the country since 1989 is at risk of reappearing and the reason is the low vaccination coverage against Poliomyelitis. Only with vaccination coverage of around 95% is it possible to keep the country free of the disease.

The case registered in Peru took place at the end of 2022, and was caused after scientific confirmation by a change in the virus, present in vaccines against the disease. Cases have also been reported in Burundi, Africa, and are also related to a derivation of the types of viruses present in immunizers.

Since 1994, Brazil has had the certificate from the World Health Organization, WHO, a certification of an area of ​​free circulation of the virus. However, in 2022, the body that monitors the circulation of viruses showed that Brazil is at high risk of an outbreak of the disease.

Since 2016, vaccination coverage in Brazil has been falling, says the Ministry of Health. According to the director of the immunization department at the Ministry of Health, Eder Gatti, “So far, we have not had any cases identified in Brazil. Since 2016, vaccine coverage has been falling, not only for vaccines against polio, and this puts Brazil in a very vulnerable situation”.

According to data from the Brazilian Unified Health System, the SUS, the vaccination rate for Poliomyelitis in the Brazilian states, mainly in the northern region, is low. The state of Amapá has the lowest rate in the region, with 51.62% of vaccination coverage. In Amazonas, the number reaches 76.69%, ideally 95%. The state of Amazonas has a very complex geography and a lot of indigenous villages and colonies of fishermen far from the big centers, being difficult to access, but there are teams from the Ministry of Health that seek to update vaccination going from house to house to these places.

On April 20th, Health Minister Nísia Trindade participated in the launch of a campaign to vaccinate children against various diseases, including Poliomyelitis.

Featured Photo: Vaccination against Poliomyelitis is recommended for children in the northern region of Brazil. Playback/Twitter.