The Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, informed that she is awaiting the arrival of all doses of the dengue vaccine to announce the distribution schedule to the 521 municipalities covered, which were selected by the Ministry of Health following criteria such as the incidence rate of the disease and the number of inhabitants. It will be a “partial calendar”, because the ministry has not yet received all the contracted doses.
“We are finalizing this process to be able to safely publish (the calendar) and, therefore, respect the demands of each municipality”, declared the minister. At the beginning of the week, Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda reported that the Qdenga vaccine (against dengue) will have priority in the Unified Health System (SUS) and will have limited supply to the private network. The immunizing agent had its registration approved by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) in March last year.
Trindade reiterated that he cannot “sell the illusion” that vaccines will change the scenario of the spread of dengue throughout the country. “In an emergency situation, the vaccine should not be seen as a magical instrument because it requires two doses, three months apart, in addition to what has already been widely publicized that, at this moment, the laboratory’s supply is restricted,” he explained. . The minister maintains permanent contact with Fiocruz and the Butantan Institute to help speed up the distribution process to the municipalities. The vaccine will be applied to children and young people between 10 and 14 years old.
The Minister of Health also commented on the possibility of expanding the age range for vaccination against dengue. “It is being studied and, quickly, we will have a conclusion about this possibility of expansion. Before that, we will start vaccinating within the rules that have been published,” she declared. She also added that, as soon as the vaccines begin to be applied, “observational studies” will be carried out to verify how much is, in fact, reducing the severity of the epidemiological situation and the number of hospitalizations.
She once again denied the possibility of the government declaring a state of epidemic in the country. “We are with the Emergency Operations Center (COE) and, at this moment, it is the strategy, from a national point of view, that we consider appropriate. We have to see that, in a country the size of Brazil and its socio-environmental differences, at this moment, a national emergency does not make sense. Which doesn’t mean that we’re not in a state of alert,” she stressed.
At this moment, the government’s message, according to the minister, is that prevention continues to be the most important measure to stop the spread of the infection, which has already affected more than 392 thousand people in the country. The most important guideline is to avoid the accumulation of stagnant water in containers such as gutters, plant pots, barrels, water tanks, among others.
Sounds global
“We are not going to wait for the vaccine, we are going to use what we already have. The best way to control the disease is in people’s hands”, highlighted the director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom. According to him, the dengue outbreak in Brazil requires the “involvement of the entire community” to control the disease vector, the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which may be in “small pockets of water”. The Ministry of Health has already warned that around 75% of outbreaks of the disease are inside people’s homes.
Adhanom also considered that Brazil is “doing everything it can” to control the current outbreak. According to him, the problem is global. “There is a global outbreak of dengue fever, the WHO is receiving reports from 80 countries in all regions, with the exception of Europe. We think this has to do with climate change as well,” declared the WHO director.
Adhanom also pointed out that vaccination against the disease is an important success for the country. “The production volume needs to increase (of the dengue vaccine), the quantity is not enough, but the work that is being carried out at the moment, I think dengue will be under control soon,” he said.
The WHO director also reiterated that Brazil “has a lot of capacity to produce vaccines”, as he had already said in a meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. And he highlighted the role of Fiocruz and the Butantan Institute as “innovative”.
