Difficulties encountered and the delay of municipalities in registering vaccination data for children aged 5 to 11 years in the databases of state governments and the Ministry of Health generate gaps in the process underway in the states and raise doubts about the real dimension of vaccination for this public.
Data from the Ministry of Health indicate that 287 Brazilian cities have not yet started vaccinating children, according to a survey carried out by the Ministry of Health. leaf. Of the 21 states that appear in this situation, however, 13 state that all their municipalities have already started to apply the doses.
Minas Gerais and Bahia did not confirm whether all cities started the campaign. In both states, their own databases register cities without any application to children.
Alagoas, Mato Grosso, Piauí, Rondônia, Santa Catarina and Sergipe have municipalities that have not started vaccination, according to data from the Ministry of Health. However, the states did not respond to questions in the report.
Carlos Lula, president of Conass (National Council of Health Secretaries), says that, until last week, it was a reality that municipalities had not yet started immunization. He assesses, however, that in recent days this situation may have evolved and what is happening today is underreporting.
He explains that in some regions, mainly in the North and Northeast, it is difficult to access electronic medical records and everything is recorded on paper before being released into the database.
“I’m going to do a collective effort to get the files from the municipalities and register them. I have around 500,000 files without typing, 500,000 fewer doses in the system in Maranhão alone”, he said in relation to vaccination of the population in general and not just children.
Childhood vaccination in Brazil started on January 14th. Almost a month later, it is possible to detect several problems in the registration of this data according to information passed on by municipalities and states.
There are cities that started immunization in the last week and have not yet registered the data in the system. There are municipalities that only registered data in the state government database and not in the Ministry of Health database. The opposite also occurs.
In other cases, there is a difference in the number of doses applied that are registered in the states and on the ministry’s website.
Some states have their own systems and others only use the Ministry of Health’s. In Bahia, for example, municipalities need to feed the SI-PNI of the Ministry of Health and the BI of Sesab, which is a state system. In Minas Gerais there is also a form of its own.
In Bom Jesus do Amparo, in Minas Gerais, according to data from the Ministry of Health, there was the application of 206 doses of vaccines until Friday (11). There is no dose on the Minas Gerais government website.
Coordinator of Bom Jesus do Amparo posts, Bianca Giovana Almeida Dias said that the municipality has already used 385 doses. In the city, those who apply the vaccine put the data in a spreadsheet and only then are they released.
“I don’t update daily [o sistema], does not have a specific date. I usually do it once a week,” said Bianca, who did not explain why the information is not in the state government’s system.
There are also cities like Xique-Xique (BA), Campo Alegre de Lourdes (BA), Caraí (MG) and Virgínia (MG), which are at the base of Health with zero childhood vaccinations, but appear with doses applied on the government website. state.
Some states claim that due to the hacker attack that occurred on the Ministry of Health’s systems, in addition to the instability of the federal systems themselves, they have hampered the process of registering this data.
Alessandro Chagas, technical advisor to Conasems (National Council of Municipal Health Departments), said that the system’s weakness for registering data is historical.
He explains that Covid data is individualized, has the person’s name and surname, this requires quality time and internet. However, municipalities often have to deal with inoperable systems, which easily disconnect.
“If the Union does not provide the internet in certain regions, there is no way for the data to be registered quickly. Not knowing exactly how many people are vaccinated impacts the strategies to be adopted,” said Chagas.
In his assessment, there should hardly be any municipality that has not actually applied any dose of childhood vaccine.
Diego Xavier, researcher at the Institute of Communication and Scientific and Technological Information in Health at Fiocruz, added that the realities are different and many municipalities do not have the technical capacity, infrastructure, internet and even computers. There are cases where those responsible for the registration need to go to neighboring cities to carry out the task.
Xavier added that the problems with the databases became visible in the new coronavirus pandemic, but they are old.
“Another problem with Covid data is that there was an attempt to make the record directly from the municipality to the Ministry of Health. With other data, the municipalities pass the data to the states, which were able to correct something before forwarding it to the government. federal,” he explained.
The Ministry of Health, in a note, reported that the ministry implemented a system for the registration of vaccines by states, municipalities and the DF, the SI-PNI, in order to obtain notifications almost in real time. The ministry also clarified that an ordinance was published that determines the period of 48 hours for the entities to register the vaccines applied in the system.
In São José do Divino, in Minas Gerais, vaccination began on Friday. The city’s strategy was to save the doses that arrived since last month so that it could accumulate a reasonable amount before starting the application.
“Very few doses arrived and, as the population was not very anxious, the nurse in charge saved it to apply at once to a larger audience. The demand is now very large”, said the Secretary of Health, Valdineia da Silva Boaventura.
In the municipality of São João do Pacuí, in Minas Gerais, vaccination began on Tuesday (8). The doses were also not released into the health system.
“The doses are entered in a notebook where there is information about the vaccinated person and, later, they are registered in the system [SI-PNI]. The doses will also be released on the Covid-19 Vaccination Panel”, said Catherine Lafetá, coordinator of Health Surveillance.
Chad-98Weaver, a distinguished author at NewsBulletin247, excels in the craft of article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a penchant for storytelling, Chad delivers informative and engaging content that resonates with readers across various subjects. His contributions are a testament to his dedication and expertise in the field of journalism.
