Over the course of a year, almost 63 thousand Portuguese adults were diagnosed. Health affected, economies too. Is the vaccine the solution?
A Area is a problem for many people, including in Portugal: between July 2023 and June 2024, practically 63 thousand Portuguese adults were diagnosed with infection by herpes zoster (area).
The numbers were presented last Friday, at an event organized by the Brazilian Association of General and Family Medicine (APMGF).
As expected, the majority (67%) of these patients were people with over 50 years.
The Zone is a health problem and, to treat it, it also turns into a economic problem.
The same study estimates that the National Health Service (SNS) has an average outpatient cost of 114.60 euros. It’s almost R$7.3 million a year.
The average cost of hospitalization for a case of herpes zoster, as the main diagnosis, was almost 3,000 euros – the duration was almost two weeks, on average.
A Portuguese man was hospitalized with shingles every two days; the total expense associated with these hospitalizations reached 560,000 euros.
Work absenteeism associated with herpes zoster has a total annual economic impact of 2.4 million euros.
With all this, APMGF indicates in a statement sent to ZAP, the annual economic impact of the Zone in Portugal is 10.2 million euros.
Doctors want the vaccine against the Zone is included in the national vaccination plan.
The President of APMGF, Nuno Jacinto, says that there is a “broad consensus on the urgency of making a decision on the introduction of this vaccine. It is important that the Secretariat and the Ministry of Health strengthen investment in disease prevention and health promotion, so that we, as countries and people, can reap the benefits in the present and in the future”.
The doctors’ first appeal on this matter was made more than a year ago. But nothing has advanced on the vaccine.
