Data from a recent survey indicate that acceptance by mothers of children and young people is high for the school-based immunization strategy.
The measles and polio vaccination campaigns begin in May and will be available in public schools – a strategy by the ministries of health and education with the aim of trying to recover some of the immunization coverage against the diseases, which is much lower than expected in 2022.
For poliomyelitis, the recommended vaccine coverage range is 80%. Last year, even with the campaign extension, vaccine recalls reached only 54 percent of Brazilian children between one and four years old.
As for measles, only 47.08% of children received the vaccine in 2022, with a target of 95% vaccination coverage.
In 2016, Brazil received the certificate of measles-free country from the (Pan American Health Organization), but lost it in 2019, after the confirmation of a case of the disease in Pará.
Last year, the cases in São Paulo reignited alerts about the importance of protection against the disease.
In response to BBC News Brasil, the Ministry of Health said it would strengthen the Health at School programme, but there are no details yet on what strategies will be used for this.
Although the target audience is children under five, the idea of the plan is to also reach those whose doses are overdue.
The success of vaccination in schools in previous campaigns
The effectiveness of this strategy varies depending on the context and the disease in question, but there is evidence that it can be very effective in increasing immunization coverage.
In Brazil, for example, vaccination in public schools was responsible for increasing vaccine coverage against polio in 2011, protecting children aged 5 to 6, and a year earlier, against meningitis C, this campaign was focused on eleven year olds. 19 years.
In 2014 another example of success much celebrated among doctors: the Ministry of Health started the HPV vaccination campaign in public schools for girls aged 11 to 13, the doses were administered within the environment school and the first dose had 92% of adhesions at the moment.
“Then, in the second dose, it already went down a lot, but when it went into the health center environment, the following year, it went down even more,” said clinical oncologist Andréa Guimarães, coordinator of the Brazilian Cancer Group gynecologists ( EVA) to BBC News Brasil in a report on HPV, explaining that, for young audiences, immunization is considered a good strategy to increase uptake, but that it requires strong logistical planning.
In 2017, the campaign was extended to 12-13 year olds. Data collected by the Brazilian Group of Gynecological Cancers (EVA) in DataSUS, by the Ministry of Health, indicates that 72% fewer girls and 52% fewer boys were immunized after the first year of vaccination in Brazil (among 2015 and 2021 and 2018 and 2021, respectively).
Trust in school vaccinations
At least 6 out of 10 Brazilian mothers report that they have already delayed vaccinating their children or have not immunized them for reasons such as lack of time, distance between their home and the place of application, loss of identity card or difficulty remembering the dose dates.
The data comes from a recent survey conducted by Instituto Locomotiva at the request of Pfizer, with the participation of 2,000 mothers of children and adolescents up to the age of 15 in the five regions of Brazil. The research has considered mothers as the main responsible for the health of their children.
Of those surveyed, 68% said they had already felt confused about immunizing their children, 39% had already stopped vaccinating due to difficulties getting to places, and 56% reported that they had already ended up forgetting their due dates. vaccination of their children.
Approximately 35% of participants indicate that they have already delayed vaccinating their children or have stopped immunizing them because they live far from the vaccination site, and this rate rises to 41% among those in classes D/E, reaching 51% in North Region. Northern mothers are also the ones who most often denounce the experience of having missed a day of work in order to take their child to be vaccinated.
“That [o Programa Nacional de Imunização] is the largest social inclusion program in Brazil – it is available to everyone. But when you look closely, you recognize that it’s not quite like that, it’s not actually reaching everyone. The pandemic has absolutely paved the way for problems accessing health and education,” assesses Renato Kfouri, pediatrician and chairman of the immunology department of the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics (SBP).
Subsequently, the survey proposes immunization in schools as a possible solution and the responses show high acceptance by the participants.
Eight out of ten mothers agree with the statement “it would be very practical if the vaccination of my son/daughter could take place within the school”; 91% of mothers say they would probably allow their children to be dosed at school. Among them, three out of four say that the decision would even depend on the type of vaccine administered.
The challenges of vaccination in schools
“The reasons why the less well-off classes in the country do not get vaccinated are not the same reasons as the upper classes. Among the poorest families, there is a lack of access to places, money for transport and information. lack of people in the upper classes What is missing is confidence in vaccines and perception of risk [do que pode acontecer à uma criança não vacinada]”, points out Kfouri.
It is also important to remember that the strategy focuses on a specific part of the population, since Brazilian children start attending school at the age of four.
“For example, immunization in the first year of life does not increase, which is also fundamental,” comments pediatrician Renato Kfouri, president of the Scientific Department of Vaccinations of the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics (SBP).
Another challenge, according to Kfouri, is financial investment.
“It is necessary for the Ministry to establish that this is indeed a priority from an investment point of view. To work, the teams of the health units have to be spread out, and these professionals need transport and substitutes, for example. wonderful ideas that we can have and recognition of all the problems that exist if you don’t have the budget for strategy”.
Source: Terra
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