With drop in coverage, São Paulo takes vaccines to municipal schools

In the wake of the vaccination against Covid-19, which began in schools in February, the city of São Paulo started to immunize children and adolescents from units of the municipal education network with vaccines against other diseases that have coverage below the target.

The active search to update the vaccination cards in municipal schools began on the 7th. Since then, 4,646 vaccines have been applied, 2,948 in children up to 4 years old and the rest in adolescents over 12 years old, according to the Municipal Department of health.

Vaccines against diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, measles, mumps and meningococcal meningitis, among others, are being applied. The prefecture did not inform how the vaccination schedule in schools is being.

As in almost all regions of the country, according to figures from the ministry, the main vaccines are below the expected coverage in the capital. And the target set for almost all dropped in the first two years of the pandemic compared to 2019.

In the case of the pentavalent there was oscillation. It reached 92.28% coverage in 2020, against 71.43% in 2019. In 2021, it dropped again: 77.99%.

Even with the recovery of some vaccines last year, compared to 2020, there are vaccine coverages that continue to fall. This is the case with immunization against polio, which reached 77.99% of the target against 86.93% in 2019 and 81.95% in 2021.

According to data from the Ricardo Nunes (MDB) management folder, in 2019, 146,256 doses of the vaccine that prevents infantile paralysis were applied in the city of São Paulo. Last year, there were 123,682.

Because of the fall in vaccine coverage in the country, the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics issued a statement last Monday (21) with a risk alert for poliomyelitis and measles.

“The entity alerts the Brazilian authorities to implement strategies that increase vaccination rates and restore confidence in vaccines, reducing hesitancy to vaccinate, especially in the pediatric population,” said the entity, citing that in 2020 coverage vaccine per target group for poliomyelitis was 75.88% and for the second dose of MMR, 62.75%.

The Medical Society recalls that Israel recently reported a circulating case of poliovirus type 3 in an unvaccinated child aged 3 years and 9 months.

experts heard by sheet state that the success of campaigns and the vaccines themselves in the past ended up being responsible for the drop in coverage, which has been registered for almost a decade and not only in Brazil.

“What drives the population to get vaccinated is the perception of the risk of the disease, the fear of dying”, says pediatrician Ana Escobar, professor at the Faculty of Medicine at USP (University of São Paulo). “When there is a disease outbreak, as happened with measles, yellow fever and Covid itself, we see queues at the posts. But when there is no outbreak, people forget about these diseases.”

Pediatrician Renato Kfouri, director of the Brazilian Society of Immunizations, says it is necessary to warn even younger doctors about the risks of diseases such as polio and measles, as they may never have had contact with them. “That’s why they don’t look at vaccine records like the old pediatricians did, with the same care, with the same emphatic demand for parents”, he says.

For specialists, there is still a need for campaigns and for the operation of health centers to be more flexible, according to the needs of parents, who may not take their children to vaccinate due to lack of time because they work during opening hours of the units.

“It’s a call for everyone, for the population and for governors, managers, to carry out more information campaigns, because if you don’t vaccinate, everything comes back, they are not eternal achievements”, says Kfouri.

In a note, the Ministry of Health says it closely monitors vaccine coverage and has worked to intensify strategies to reverse the scenario of low coverage.

In the last three years, in addition to vaccination campaigns against influenza, polio, measles, among others, the ministry claims to have promoted multi-vaccination campaigns to update the vaccination card.

“In 2021, more than 23.1 million doses were applied during the September campaign. More than 6.7 million people among the target audience updated the vaccination book during the period of action”, says excerpt from the note.

Covid-19

According to data from the Municipal Health Department, until last Wednesday (23), 22,606 doses of vaccine against Covid-19 had been administered in schools in the municipal network.

The number represents 1.6% of vaccines given to children aged 5 to 12 years. According to the folder, 41.1% of them are already fully immunized with two doses — 84.1% had received only the first dose until the same Wednesday.

In the state of São Paulo, 76.2% of children aged 5 to 12 years had received the first dose until this Thursday (24th) and 35.89% were fully immunized.

How is vaccination coverage in the city of São Paulo

Source: Municipal Health Department