Sespa raises awareness among the population during the 22nd Vaccination Week in the Americas

In the context of the 22nd Vaccination Week in the Americas (SVA), which takes place from April 20th to 27th, the State Department of Public Health (Sespa) once again draws the attention of the population of Pará to the importance of keeping the vaccination schedule for the entire family, starting with children.

With the theme “Protect the Future: Get Vaccinated”, SVA is promoted by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to raise awareness among the population about the importance of using vaccines to protect people of all ages against preventable diseases and highlight that immunization is widely recognized as one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions in the world.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives – or the equivalent of six lives every minute of every year – over the past 50 years. The vast majority of lives saved (101 million) were children.

According to the WHO, “scientific study shows that immunization is the greatest contribution among health interventions to ensure that babies not only see their first birthdays, but continue to lead healthy lives into adulthood.”

Of the vaccines studied by the WHO in conjunction with several scientific institutions, the vaccine against measles was the one that had the most significant impact on reducing child mortality, accounting for 60% of the lives saved due to immunization.

Therefore, with the aim of strengthening immunization actions across the planet, the WHO, together with Unicef ​​and other institutions, launches, during the 13th World Immunization Week (24th to 30th April), the “Humanly Possible” Campaign .

With this certainty, the government of the State of Pará, through the School Health Program (PSE), will carry out, from May 2nd to June 2nd, the Vaccination Campaign in Schools, which will be developed by Sespa in partnership with State Department of Education (Seduc) and Council of Municipal Health Secretaries (Cosems), as the Municipal Health Departments are responsible for carrying out vaccination actions in the municipalities.

At Schools – The objective of the Campaign is to transform students into spokespersons for the importance of vaccines for their families and restore vaccination coverage, especially vaccines against polio, HPV, measles and meningitis caused by ACWY meningococci.

According to the state coordinator of Immunizations, Jaíra Ataíde, among adolescents, the vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of those that most worries health authorities because coverage continues to be low since it was included in the National Vaccination Calendar ten years ago. .

According to Sespa data, the HPV vaccine currently has the following coverage by age group: 10 years (35%), 11 years (43%), 12 years (46%), 13 years (35%) and 14 years (54%).

“So, with Vaccination in Schools, we hope to combat fake news, have spokespeople about the importance of vaccination and increase vaccination coverage by 10% for each age group, applying 150 thousand doses of the HPV vaccine”, said the state coordinator.

Service: The launch of the Vaccination Campaign in Schools will be on May 3rd, in the auditorium of Colégio Estadual Visconde de Souza Franco.