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According to the Ministry of Health, until last Friday (26), around 1.7 million doses of dengue vaccine were distributed — and, of these, 814,698 were applied to the target audience by the Unified Health System (SUS). In total, 1,330 Brazilian municipalities have already been covered.
The ministry reported that, this year, Brazil will receive 5.2 million doses, in addition to a donation of 1.3 million doses, to complete the vaccination schedule for more than 3 million people.
As of Tuesday (30), the country had registered 4.1 million probable cases of dengue, 1,937 confirmed deaths and 2,345 are under investigation.
Physiotherapist Cynara Ferreira, who lives in Salvador, says she had a serious case of dengue fever and had to stay in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for four days.
“It’s a very bad disease. The symptoms are very severe and people’s fear of having a more serious type of the disease is imminent. My presentation was with an alarm signal for bleeding. Then I felt really bad, I had prostration, fever, headache, I had a general loss of appetite, I couldn’t eat or drink anything,” she recalls.
High taxes
In order, the Federal District, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Espírito Santo and Goiás have higher incidence coefficients — a rate that estimates the risk of cases occurring in a given population, considering 100 thousand inhabitants (see image below).
According to the latest epidemiological bulletin from the Federal District, released on the 20th, up to week 16 there were 236,579 probable cases of dengue — an increase of 1,491.8% in residents of the DF compared to the same period last year.
Vaccination coverage of the target audience in the Federal District was 30.3%, until April 15th. In total, 78,253 doses were administered.
In Minas Gerais, there are already 1,226,333 probable cases. Of this total, 556,480 cases were confirmed for the disease. As of April 29, the state health department recorded 324 deaths from dengue — and 769 are under investigation.
In the state of São Paulo — which has the highest number of deaths (468) and serious cases (9,006) in 2024 — until last Thursday (25), 61,586 doses of the vaccine were administered to children aged 10 to 14 years, reaching a coverage of 30.8%. In the health regions of Aquifer Guarani, Metropolitana de Campinas, São José do Rio Preto and the capital of São Paulo, 4,479 doses were administered to children aged 10 to 14 years, with a coverage of 1.7%.
Across the country, the most affected age group is adults between 20 and 29 years old. Infectious disease specialist Joana Gonçalves explains why arboviruses affect more people in this range.
“Young adults expose themselves more, they go into camping, in a forest region, he goes to habitat where we have several viruses circulating. Therefore, the possibility of infection and illness is greater in those who are exposed to risk. So, this is generally the scenario”, he analyzes.
Check out the image below:
Investment
The Ministry of Health allocated R$140 million to support states and municipalities in combating arboviruses. Acre, Amapá, Goiás, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro were awarded resources after declaring an emergency.
To calculate the allocation of resources, factors such as the number of teams, programs and services in the area co-financed by Primary Care in the municipalities are considered.
Edition: Zildenor Dourado
Zildenor Dourado has a degree in Journalism and Literature/Portuguese from the University of Brasília. He is a specialist in Legislative Communication, from Unilegis, of the Federal Senate. He worked as a reporter and editor for the newspapers Tribuna da Bahia, A Tarde and Jornal de Brasília. in addition to several union press vehicles. He worked as a public servant for the Federal Legislative Chamber, where he was a reporter, editor and head of the Publicity and Press Relations Section.
