Technical Chamber recommends 3rd dose of Covid vaccine in young people aged 12 to 17

The Covid-19 Technical Advisory Board on Immunization (Ctai) approved the recommendation of a third dose (or booster dose) of the disease vaccine for adolescents aged 12 to 17 years.

The chamber is made up of more than 30 professionals from different scientific and medical specialties who meet weekly to advise the federal government on immunization matters, in an advisory capacity.

In past recommendations, the Ministry of Health accepted the group’s decision and published technical notes with the new resolutions.

The committee is made up of members of scientific and medical societies, as well as consultants in the areas of immunology, infectology, epidemiology and other areas of vaccines.

Ctai also represents representatives of state and municipal health councils, such as Conasems (National Council of Municipal Health Secretaries) and Conass (National Council of Health Secretaries), in addition to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), an arm in Americas of the WHO (World Health Organization).

The third dose of the Covid vaccine is currently only available in Brazil for people over 18 years old. In other countries, such as the United States, Israel, Canada, the United Kingdom, Chile and in the European Union countries, an additional dose has already been authorized for persons under 18 years of age. Australia, on the other hand, recommends a third dose only for 16- and 17-year-olds.

Last Tuesday, the FDA, the agency that regulates drugs and food products in the United States, also approved a booster dose for those aged 5 to 11 years.

According to Renato Kfouri, pediatrician and director of the Brazilian Society of Immunizations (SBIm), which is part of the chamber, there is a tendency to recommend additional doses for all age groups. “The full three-dose regimen will be natural for all ages,” he said.

Also according to him, the Ministry of Health may publish the report with the new recommendation within the next few days, but there is still no forecast of when it would be.

The report contacted the Ministry of Health to ask about such a recommendation and if there is an intention to make the report next week, but the agency’s advice said it did not have this information.

“The only change [anunciada] this week was the fourth dose for all seniors over 60 years old,” said the agency’s advisory.

In the past, Ctai was responsible for guiding the decisions of the Ministry of Health regarding, for example, which types of immunizing agents are most recommended for vaccine boosters in adults and those indicated for vaccination of pregnant and postpartum women.

In the latter case, the recommendation to opt for messenger RNA (Pfizer) or inactivated virus (Coronavac) immunizers over vaccines with a viral vector (such as AstraZeneca and Janssen) came after the notification of rare, but serious cases, of clots formed after vaccination with these immunizers, especially in young women. The same indication was made in other countries, such as the USA.

In the case of boosters, the Ministry of Health recommends that Pfizer vaccines be used, preferably, or, in the absence of this, AstraZeneca or Janssen as third and fourth doses for those over 18 years of age. This recommendation was also approved by Ctai, which evaluated the effectiveness of the so-called heterologous regimen, when different immunizations are used in the first and second cycle, and with the greatest effectiveness of Pfizer in protecting the elderly.

For young people aged 12 to 17, there are currently only two immunizers in the country with Anvisa authorization for this audience, Pfizer and Coronavac. The recommendation of the technical chamber, based on scientific studies and data from the American CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is to use only Pfizer as a reinforcement in this audience.