Brazilian health authorities announced the beginning of a large yellow fever vaccination campaign on Thursday in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, according to a ministry news release (computer translated).
In all, 23.8 million people should be vaccinated in the 77 municipalities that will adopt the fractionation strategy.
In the state of São Paulo, the expectation is to vaccinate around 10.3 million people, and in Rio de Janeiro a total of 10 million. The state of Bahia will have 3.3 million people vaccinated.
The adoption of vaccine fractionation is a preventive measure recommended by the WHO when there is an increase in animal diseases (death of monkeys) and cases of wild yellow fever in an intense way, with risk of disease spread in cities with a high population index. The fractionated dose has shown the same protection as the standard dose. Ongoing studies have already shown protection for at least eight years and further research will continue to evaluate after this period.
According to the Ministry of Health Tuesday, from July 1, 2017 to January 23, 2018, 130 cases of yellow fever were confirmed in the country, of which 53 died.
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