Pazuello appoints veterinarian to lead National Immunization Program | Science and health

Laurício Monteiro Cruz is a veterinarian trained at the Centro Universitário de Desenvolvimento do Centro Oeste, in Goiás, and has a master’s degree in prevention and control of diseases in animals from the Faculty of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine of the University of Brasilia.

According to his curriculum, available on the internet, Cruz was assigned to the Directorate of Environmental Health Surveillance of the Federal District Government and specializes in the control of leishmaniasis.

The department that Cruz will head is in charge of organizing the country’s vaccination calendar, national campaigns and the distribution of medicines to the states, as well as monitoring vaccination coverage.

Although the National Immunization Program is considered a world benchmark, since 2016 vaccination coverage in the country has not reached the goals, not even in mandatory childhood vaccines.

Data from the Ministry of Health itself indicate that none of the 10 mandatory vaccines for children under two years of age reached the coverage goals in 2019. Among them, poliomyelitis, which had coverage for only 82.1% of children. Considered officially eradicated in Brazil since 1994, the disease still requires vaccination because the virus still circulates throughout the world.