Brazil began a free vaccination campaign against dengue on February 9, after an explosion of cases since the beginning of 2024 triggered the alert in the country, including the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
According to the latest figures released by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, 395,103 probable cases of dengue were registered in the first five weeks of the year, four times more than in the same period of 2023 (93,298). Authorities also confirmed 53 deaths attributable to the disease and are still analyzing data on another 281.
"Even without an epidemic, we would begin this vaccination because dengue has been a health problem for a long time," said Health Minister Nisia Trindade.
According to the AFP agency , Brazil is the first country in the world to offer the immunizer through the public health system. The Qdenga vaccine, of Japanese origin, will be applied. Initially it will be offered to children aged 10 and 11 years and gradually, the administration should be extended to patients up to 14 years old. Authorities explained that given the "limited" production capacity, they must establish priorities and that age group concentrates the highest rate of hospitalizations due to dengue.
The first batch of 712,000 vaccines was sent to 315 municipalities. About 3.2 million of the 203 million Brazilians must be vaccinated in 2024. In addition, the government is studying increasing the number of doses available through local vaccine production.
"We are seeing an anticipation of cases that we had not seen in the last dengue epidemics, due to the circulation of the four serotypes at the same time in the country. Some had not circulated in Brazil for 15 years," said the Ministry’s surveillance secretary. of Health, Ethel Maciel and added that due to the high temperatures the mosquito is active "all day long."
