August, 2023
The Brazilian Ministry of Health has recently launched in the state of Pará, the new moment of a multi-vaccine campaign to update the vaccine cards for children and teenagers up to 15 years old. The campaign started in the first half of 2023 in the states of Amazonas, Acre, and Amapá, and it that will be carried out in all states of the country.
The multi-vaccine campaign aims to facilitate access to vaccines that are part of the National Vaccination Calendar, update the vaccination cards of children and teenagers under 15 years old and contribute to the control, elimination, and eradication of vaccine-preventable diseases.
Among the vaccines that are available at the vaccination stations during the campaign are: BCG, Hepatitis A and B, Penta (DTP/Hib/Hep B), Pneumococcal 10 valent, VIP (Inactivated Poliomyelitis Vaccine), VRH (Human Rotavirus Vaccine), Meningococcal C ( conjugated), VOP (Oral Poliomyelitis Vaccine), Yellow Fever, Triple Viral (Measles, Rubella, Mumps), Tetraviral (Measles, Rubella, Mumps, Chickenpox), DTP (Triple Bacterial), Varicella and Quadrivalent HPV (Human Papillomavirus).
This initiative is part of the broader National Movement for Vaccination, started in February by the Federal Government, intending to resume high vaccination coverage in the country. The former Brazilian government neglected vaccination policies, and negationism and misinformation may have affected the confidence of many Brazilians in vaccines. Even though Brazil is considered an international reference in this matter, the country has experienced setbacks in this field in recent years, which increases the risk of reintroducing diseases that have already been eliminated, such as polio, a disease that was reported in March of this year in Peru, in the border region. Since 2016, Brazil has been on the World Health Organization (WHO) list as a place of very high risk for reintroducing the disease.
We highlight the article A battle won: the Elimination of Poliomyelitis in Cuba to shed light on this issue. In this article, Enrique Beldarraín Chaple, a professor at the Medical University of Havana, discusses the state’s central role in eliminating polio in the country. The researcher reconstructs the history of the disease in Cuba until 1961 and the first National Anti-Polio Vaccination Campaign (1962). He also analyzes the continuity of the annual vaccination campaigns until the certification of their elimination (1994).
HCS-Manguinhos has published several other articles on vaccines, vaccination campaigns, and disease eradication in Latin America. Among the topics covered, we can mention the vaccination campaigns and public policies that eradicated polio and smallpox, research for developing a vaccine against Malaria, and the international circulation of knowledge that favored the development of vaccines in Brazil.
Read in HCS-Manguinhos:
The race for a vaccine The disputed race for the vaccine against the new coronavirus is the topic explored by Marcos Cueto, scientific editor of HCS-Manguinhos, in the Editor’s note of its latest issue.
A history of vaccination in Latin America From polio to smallpox, from covid-19 to Malaria, we have gathered all the articles about vaccines and vaccination already published in HCS-Manguinhos.
The establishment of the Manguinhos laboratory, 1894-1902. Matheus Alves da Silva analyzes the 1900 establishment of the Federal Serum Therapy Institute of Manguinhos, Fiocruz, in Rio de Janeiro, focusing on the international circulation of knowledge.
In the first half of 1951, the last case of smallpox was registered in Mexico. The investigation note “The phase after the eradication of smallpox in Mexico, 1952-1977 ” by Nydia Aguirre-Bolaños proposes research on the stage after the declaration of the disease eradication in the country.
The article Control, containment, and health education in the smallpox-vaccination campaigns in Mexico in the 1940s, by“ Agostoni, Claudia. “Médicos, campañas y vacunas la viruela y la cultura de su prevención en México 1870-1952.” Claudia Agostoni, analyzes why a uniform and coordinated vaccination method was adopted to counter the outbreaks of this endemic disease, especially in central Mexico and the reasons why smallpox vaccination was considered critical to establishing a culture of prevention.
In Smallpox eradication, laboratory visits, and a touch of tourism: travel notes of a Canadian scientist in Brazil, Steven Palmer, Gilberto Hochman, and Danieli Arbex present the travel notes diary of Canadian scientist Robert J. Wilson when he visited Brazil in April 1967 during the Smallpox Eradication Programme run by the WHO. Wilson’s report makes it possible to reflect on the smallpox eradication campaign in Brazil and the Canada-Brazil cooperation to improve the quality of the smallpox vaccine.
A história da imunização no Brasil: o presente no passado Veja o que HCS-Manguinhos publicou desde 1996, com destaque a suplemento temático de 2003
The disputed race for the vaccine against the new coronavirus is explored by Marcos Cueto, scientific editor of HCS-Manguinhos, in the Editor’s note of HCSM’s recent issue. According to Cueto, this race reveals the importance of technology in the battle against the pandemic, but a look at past epidemic outbreaks has shown that the fight against diseases needs to consider social and institutional factors.
Las campañas de vacunación contra la viruela en México durante la década de 1940 El artículo examina algunas transformaciones por las que atravesaron los programas mexicanos de vacunación al establecerse la Campaña Nacional contra la Viruela.
El devenir histórico de la poliomielitis en la Argentina Reseña de Fausto Gabriel Ferreyra sobre la investigación histórica de Daniela Testa acerca de la poliomielitis en Argentina.
Aguirre-Bolaños, Nydia. La etapa posterior a la erradicación de la viruela en México, 1952-1977. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, Set 2018, vol.25, no.3.
Chaple, Enrique Beldarraín. Una batalla ganada: la eliminación de la poliomielitis en Cuba. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, Set 2015, vol.22, no.3
Altink, Henrice. The black scourge? Race and the Rockefeller Foundation’s tuberculosis commission in interwar Jamaica. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, Oct 2017, vol.24, no.4.
Nussenzweig, Ruth Sonntag. Breakthroughs towards a malaria vaccine. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, June 2011, vol.18, no.2
Palmer, Steven, Hochman, Gilberto and Arbex, Danieli. Smallpox eradication, laboratory visits, and a touch of tourism: travel notes of a Canadian scientist in Brazil. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, 2010, vol.17, no.3.
Hochman, Gilberto and Palmer, Steven Smallpox eradication and Brazil: an interview with Donald A. Henderson. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, 2010, vol.17, no.3.
Cueto, Marcos. Covid-19 and the race for a vaccine Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, Set 2020, vol.27, no.3. https://www.revistahcsm.coc.fiocruz.br/english/la-eliminacion-de-la-poliomielites-en-cuba/