This Saturday (8) Victory Day against Polio will take place throughout Brazil. Cities across the country, including Santa Catarina, will make joint efforts to reduce the number of unvaccinated children, thus strengthening measures to eradicate the disease. The Ministry of Health launched the campaign this year on May 27 and will continue until June 14.
The 2024 goal is to vaccinate at least 95% of the target population – about 13 million children under the age of five.
Director of Acute Infectious Diseases and Immunization at the Directorate for Epidemiology Surveillance (DIVE), Ariele Ciesel Fialho, asks parents, especially those who do not have the opportunity to take their children for vaccination during the week, to take advantage of the opportunity to update the children's vaccination status on Saturday.
The polio vaccine is included in the childhood vaccination calendar. The vaccination schedule is three doses of inactivated polio vaccine (VIP) at 2 months, 4 months, and 6 months; and two booster doses of oral polio vaccine (OPV), droplet vaccine, at 1 year, 3 months and 4 years of age.
During the campaign period, VIP dosing continues according to the recommended schedule, but the PWV dose is randomly administered to all children aged 1 to 4 years, as long as they have already received the base regimen with VIP.
Vaccination coverage
In 2022, 77% of children younger than 1 year received the VIP (inactivated polio vaccine) dose. In 2023, the number jumped to 84.63%, according to data from the National Health Data Network (RNDS).
Immunization day
Also this weekend, on June 9, Immunization Day is celebrated. History indicates the importance of vaccination at all stages of life, in addition to enhancing the benefit to collective health.
Currently, the DPNI of the Ministry of Health offers more than 40 types of immunobiology in the Unified Health System (SUS). In the national vaccination calendar, not only children are included, but also adolescents, adults, the elderly, pregnant women and indigenous people.
In 2023, an increase in vaccination coverage was recorded for 13 out of the 16 main vaccinators in the SUS pediatric calendar, compared to 2022. The result, obtained through data from across the country, reinforces the reversal of the decline in vaccination rates experienced Brazil. Since 2016.
