Ten municipalities in Amazonas will receive doses of dengue vaccine. The strategy was defined this Thursday (27), after the Ministry of Health received the donation of 1.2 million doses that are close to expiring – on April 30th.
According to the technical note from the Department of the National Immunization Program (DPNI), the municipalities in Amazonas covered are: Coari, Lábrea, Tonantins, Codajás, Tefé, Carauari, Envira, Jutaí, Benjamin Constant and Manacapuru.
These municipalities were chosen because they fit the criteria established when the first batches were distributed: Health Regions with large municipalities with high transmission in the last ten years and a resident population equal to or greater than 100 thousand inhabitants, also taking into account high rates of transmission in recent months.
Vaccination schedule and distribution
The vaccine is intended for people aged 10 to 14, the population that accounts for the highest proportion of hospitalizations due to the disease. The vaccination schedule consists of two doses with an interval of three months between them.
In total, 165 Brazilian municipalities were covered. There are 668 thousand doses close to expiration date, scheduled for April 30: 523 thousand in June; and 84 thousand in July. During a press conference, the director of the Department of the National Immunization Program (DPNI), Eder Gatti, explained the scheme for expanding the number of municipalities covered.
“We cannot let these doses expire. Given this, the Ministry came up with a solution: redistribute, within the federated units, that is, within the states, to municipalities that have not yet been covered”, highlighted Gatti.
The forecast is that next week the redistributed doses will begin to be used, depending on the relocation process specific to each location.
