Brazil’s Measles and Polio Vaccination Program Extended in 11 States

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Polio and Measles Vaccination Campaign promoted by Brazil’s federal government and scheduled to end on Friday (August 31st) has been extended in those municipalities which have yet to reach their target immunization.

According to Brazil’s Health Ministry, eleven Brazilian states have indices below the target with only about 72.9 percent of children aged one through five years been immunized.

“These states need to intensify their vaccination efforts to achieve the campaign goal of vaccinating 95 percent of the target audience,” said Health Minister, Gilberto Occhi on Thursday.

“It is through vaccination that we will prevent diseases, that have already been eliminated, from returning to Brazil,” added Occhi.

Data from the Ministry of Health shows that more than seventeen million doses of the vaccines were applied since start of the campaign at the beginning of August, but also that more than three million children still need to be immunized.

Among the states with the lowest vaccination coverage are Rio de Janeiro, Roraima, Pará, Acre, Amazonas, Bahia, Piauí, Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso do Sul, São Paulo and Mato Grosso. Only Amapá has reached the goal of immunizing 95 percent of the target population.

As of August 28th, 1,553 cases of measles have been confirmed in Brazil, while 6,975 remain under investigation. Seven deaths due to measures were confirmed, all in the Northern region of the country.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Health also revealed that it had authorized the transfer of R$3 million in resources from the National Health Fund to the State Health Fund of Amazonas, to combat the outbreak of measles in the state.