Infectologists in Brazil call for reintroduction of masks and more vaccines against Covid-19

The SBI (Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases) on Friday (Nov. 11) defended increased vaccination, the return to the use of masks, and other measures to prevent the current scenario of high numbers of Covid-19 cases from bringing a possible increase in hospital admissions, hospital overcrowding, and deaths.

The organization released a technical alert prepared by its Scientific Committee on Covid-19 and Respiratory Infections and signed by SBI President Alberto Chebabo.

“In at least four states, there is already a trend of significant acceleration in the curve of new cases of infection with SARS-COV-2 compared to the previous month,” said the text, based on data published Friday (Nov. 10) in Fiocruz’s InfoGripe Bulletin (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation).

The SBI warned that the scenario is due to the omicron BQ.1 sub-variant and other variants.

It called on the Ministry of Health, Conitec (National Commission for the Incorporation of Technology in the Unified Health System), and Anvisa (National Health Regulator) to pay special attention to the proposed measures.

In Brazil, there are 34.9 million cases and 688,607 deaths from Covid-19.
With 3.228 deaths per million inhabitants, Brazil is 17th in the ranking.

The first point raised by the scientific society is that it is necessary to increase vaccination rates against Covid-19, especially in the different booster doses. The SBI rated the coverage as unsatisfactory.

Infectious disease specialists also recommended ensuring that all children 6 months to 5 years of age are vaccinated with sufficient vaccine doses, regardless of comorbidities.

Until now, vaccination of children ages 6 months to 3 years has been limited to children with comorbidities. The Ministry of Health began distributing 1 million vaccine doses to the public on Friday (Nov. 10).

The SBI also called for rapid licensure and access to second-generation bivalent vaccines updated with the new variants.

Anvisa is analyzing the vaccines.

In response to a request from Agência Brasil, the health agency said that the processes are in the final stages of analysis.

The consultations are expected to take place soon, although no date has been set yet.

“The National Institutes of Health continues to work on analyzing emergency use applications for new versions of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer’s laboratory that contain subvariants BA.1 and BA.4 /BA.5,” it said in a statement.

“The processes went through phases of analysis of data submitted to the agency, questioning by the agency and clarification by the manufacturers, and discussion with Brazilian medical societies.”

“The agency’s technical team has already received expert opinions from medical societies on Pfizer’s two bivalent vaccines,” Anvisa added.

Another point raised by infectiologists is the need to make available in public and private networks the drugs already approved by Anvisa for the treatment and prevention of covid-19, such as paxlovid and molnupiravir, an action that has not yet occurred after more than six months of approval of these drugs in Brazil, SBI stressed.

Agência Brasil had asked the Ministry of Health if these drugs were already available but had not received a response by the time this report went to press.

The 5th point concerns non-pharmacological preventive measures.

SBI defended the reintroduction of masks and social distancing to avoid crowd situations, especially among the most vulnerable population, such as the elderly and immunocompromised.

SBI calls for the proposed measures to be taken soon to optimize the prevention and treatment technologies already available and reduce the risk of a possible increase in the number of deaths and the overloading of health services.

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