The Ministry of Health announced this Thursday (25) the expansion of the vaccination campaign against dengue. Starting next week, 625 new cities will receive the vaccine. The priority is for application to children aged 10 to 14. However, health units that have doses close to expiration are authorized to direct the vaccine to the population aged 0 to 50 years.
More than 980 thousand doses will be distributed. With the increase, Brazil now has more than 1,300 municipalities participating in the campaign. The new cities that will receive the vaccine are located in the states of Alagoas, Ceará, Sergipe, Rio Grande do Sul, Piauí and Mato Grosso.
The announcement was made during a press conference by the Ministry of Health, which also released the most recent dengue figures in the country. For about a month now, Brazil has shown a downward or stable trend in dengue cases in most of the national territory.
According to data updated until this Wednesday (24) by the Ministry of Health, of the 27 federation units, six still show an increase in cases. 10 states presented stable numbers in the period, with no signs of an increase. In 9 a drop was observed.
Finally, in another 6, an increasing trend in numbers was observed. The list includes Ceará, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará, Sergipe and Tocantins.
The folder also presented data relating to active epidemics in other Latin American countries. There are 14 nations in this situation. Eight of them are experiencing a high transmission season, all of them in South America. In addition to Brazil, the list includes Colombia, French Guiana, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay and Argentina. Uruguay is considered a “limited prior transmission” area.
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The Health Surveillance Secretariat, Ethel Maciel, highlighted that, among these countries, Brazil is second to last in the number of deaths. “In terms of lethality, we are second to last. Which is not something that comforts us, because we currently have 1,792 confirmed deaths and more than 2,000 under investigation.”
Currently, the country has more than 3.8 million probable cases of dengue. Of these, 40,400 are considered serious or have warning signs. Ten states still have emergency decrees in force. The same occurs in 587 municipalities.
About the disease
Dengue is caused by a virus, transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Among the most recurrent symptoms are high fever, muscle and joint pain and skin rashes. The disease can cause internal bleeding in organs and tissues and lead to death.
There are four types of dengue virus circulating on the planet. People infected with one of them are not immune to the others. This dynamic favors the occurrence of more serious epidemics from time to time. In Brazil, these periods occur on average every three years.
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However, the dismantling of public policies observed in the country in recent years has led to successively considerable numbers. In 2022 and 2023 there were also unprecedented records of cases and deaths.
Other factors also influence the increase in infections, including climate change. As the mosquito proliferates in stagnant water, intense rains increase the presence of the vector. Furthermore, Aedes aegipty reproduces more quickly in heat, therefore, it benefits from the extreme temperatures recently recorded in Brazil.
The population can help combat the disease by eliminating areas with stagnant water, which become breeding grounds for mosquitoes. The list includes tires, water tanks, plant pots and accumulated trash, for example.
Editing: Nicolau Soares
Tags: cities included vaccination
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