Starting in August, all 4-year-old children will receive another booster dose of the polio vaccine. As a result, the Unified Health System (SUS) returns to offering the scheme that was carried out until 2024, but now exclusively with the injectable vaccine.
Until that year, all children received three doses of the injectable vaccine, made with the inactivated virus. And, later, two booster doses with the oral vaccine, with a weakened virus, the famous droplet.
However, as in very rare situations, ovAttenuated oral vaccine virus can mutate and cause diseasethe Ministry of Health decided to exclusively use the injectable vaccine, suppressing the second booster dose.
With the most recent change, the scheme returns to:
– Three doses at 2, 4 and 6 months to provide basic protection;
– Two booster doses at 15 months and 4 years of age, to complement prevention.
On five occasions, the inactivated injectable vaccine will be applied. All children under 5 years of age who have not received five doses must be taken to the clinic health department to check the need for vaccination updates.
The change in the vaccination schedule was decided after a meeting of the Technical Advisory Chamber on Immunizations and communicated by the National Immunization Program (PNI) in a technical note last week. It comes into effect from August 3rd.
The director of the Brazilian Society of Immunizations (SBI)Isabela Ballalai, explains that the booster is necessary because the protection provided by the vaccine decreases over time. Therefore, additional doses ensure that it remains high.
“Polio is under control among us. However, the global situation has been showing localized outbreaks that are worrying and increasing the risk of reaching the country. So it is better to maintain the two-boost schedule. This is the World Health Organization standard”, he adds.
Also according to Isabela Ballalai, the vaccine is recommended for children under 5 years of age because this is the age group most at risk of developing serious conditions after infection with the virus. However, in outbreak situations, adults can also be vaccinated.
O Brazil has not recorded cases of polio for 37 years and in 1994 received the virus-free area certificate. However, despite being eradicated in much of the world, the polio virus still circulates in some countries and vaccination is the only way to prevent the disease and prevent it from causing outbreaks again, as it did in the past.
Between 1968 and 1989, Brazil recorded more than 26,000 polio infections. The virus generally causes mild symptoms, but it can reach the central nervous system and cause paralysis and death. Therefore, polio is also called “infantile paralysis”.
