The national vaccination campaigns against polio and multivaccination will take place on D-day this Saturday | Vaccine

Multiple vaccination and polio immunization are separate campaigns carried out at the same time; both will run until October 30. SUS will offer the 18 vaccines provided in the calendar free of charge.

• REMAINS: Half of Brazilian children did not receive all the vaccines they should have in 2020, according to data from the Ministry of Health
• CALENDAR: See the National Vaccination Calendar of the Ministry of Health

Vaccines protect against about 20 diseases: BCG (tuberculosis); rotavirus (diarrhea); oral and intramuscular polio (infantile paralysis); pentavalent (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenza type b – Hib); pneumococcal; meningococcal; DTP; triple viral (measles, mumps and rubella); HPV (prevents cervical cancer and genital warts); in addition to vaccines against yellow fever, chickenpox, and hepatitis A.

This year, a new vaccine, already included in the campaign, also joined the SUS: Meningo ACWY, which protects against meningitis and generalized infections, caused by meningococcal bacteria types A, C, W and Y.

In the campaign against polio, the objective of the Ministry of Health is to vaccinate about 11 million children between 1 and 5 years old with the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) since they have already received the three doses of Inactivated Polio Vaccine (VIP).

Children under one year (up to 11 months and 29 days) should be selectively vaccinated, as indicated in the National Immunization Calendar, with the VIP.

According to the National Immunization Program (PNI), until the beginning of October, vaccination coverage was 56.68% for childhood vaccines. Ideally, it should be between 90% and 95% to ensure protection against diseases such as measles (which has an ideal 95% rate), whooping cough, meningitis, and polio.

The low immunization rate already has consequences: data from the Ministry of Health show that, until the In early August, the country had 7,700 confirmed measles cases. Last year, Brazil lost its certificate of eradication of the disease.

For Isabella Ballalai, pediatrician and vice president of the Brazilian Society of Immunizations (SBIm), the reason for the low coverage is the Covid-19 pandemic, which led people to stay home and not go out to vaccinate their children.

“This situation is repeated all over the world. There was a drop between 30% and 50%,” says Ballalai. The doctor remembers that, Despite the decreases observed in immunization rates in Brazil in recent years, the country continues to have one of the best vaccine coverage in the world.

“This coverage is not just a number. Without vaccination coverage, we are susceptible to all these diseases: outbreaks of meningitis, return of poliomyelitis,” recalls the pediatrician.

“These eliminated diseases are only eliminated with vaccination,” says Ballalai.

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