Only 1.5% of Municipalities Meet the Flu Vaccination Target
Health Ministry dashboard shows 52.45% coverage of the target group in the South, Southeast, Center-West and Northeast; experts cite El Niño.
Translated from the Portuguese original by the Panorama newsroom. Read in Portuguese
Summary written by the Panorama newsroom from the sources listed below. Facts are attributed to the original publications.
Of the 5,119 municipalities in the South, Southeast, Center-West and Northeast, only 82 (1.47%) reached the target of vaccinating 90% of the priority group against the flu. The data come from the Health Ministry's vaccination dashboard, checked on Thursday (29), according to Folha.
Another 139 municipalities (2.5%) are above 80%. Most, 2,935 cities (52.68%), have coverage between 41% and 60%, and 1,571 (28.2%) vaccinated from 61% to 80%. Across the four regions combined, 52.45% of the target population was immunized: older adults, children from 6 months to under 6 years, and pregnant women.
The North region was left out because its campaign takes place in the second half of the year, in mid-November, because of the Amazonian winter.
Infectious disease specialist Rosana Richtmann, of the immunization committee of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases, calls the year critical because of El Niño. According to her, low temperatures favor transmission and there are off-season influenza cases.
She notes that vaccine protection lasts about six months, so those who were immunized in March may be less protected now.