The first doses of the monkeypox vaccine (monkeypox, in English) destined for Brazil should arrive in September, the executive secretary of the Ministry of Health, Daniel Pereira, and the secretary of Health Surveillance of the ministry, Arnaldo, recently informed. Medeiros. About 20 thousand doses will land in the country in September; and 30 thousand in October.
Only healthcare professionals who handle samples collected from patients and people who have had direct contact with patients will be vaccinated. The vaccination schedule will be done in two doses, with an interval of 30 days between them.
The acquisition will be made through an agreement with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) because the Danish company that produces the non-replicating vaccine does not have an office in Brazil nor does it intend to open representation in the country. “There is a request from PAHO for the acquisition of 100,000 doses of vaccines for the Americas. Of these 100,000 doses, 50,000 will be purchased by the Ministry of Health”, detailed Medeiros.
This afternoon, the secretaries of the Ministry of Health granted a press conference to explain the actions of the portfolio, on the day of the inauguration of the Emergency Operation Center (COE), which will coordinate the work of monitoring and combating the disease.
According to the secretary of Health Surveillance, the ministry informed that there will be no mass vaccination campaign because there is no recommendation from the World Health Organization (WHO). “The WHO does not advocate mass vaccination, so we are not talking about a vaccination campaign as we used to talk about covid-19. They are absolutely different viruses, it is an absolutely different clinic, an absolutely different contagion, a different lethality. They are absolutely different diseases,” he justified.
Although, at this first moment, Brazil buys doses from a Danish company, Medeiros did not rule out the possibility that, in the future, the Ministry of Health could buy doses from the Butantan Institute or from the Manguinhos Laboratory, from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, if these units produce some non-replicable immunizer against monkeypox and if necessary.
stigmatization
The Ministry of Health maintained the guidelines for those who are suspected of being infected. Anyone who has symptoms should see a doctor, inform close contacts and isolate themselves as soon as possible. Although most of the cases recorded so far are in men who have had sex with men, the Secretary of Health Surveillance warned that anyone can contract the virus.
“The epidemiological data we have is that, in almost 20 thousand cases in the world, more than 95% of confirmed cases are of men who have sex with men, but this is not stigmatization because the main form of transmission is through of contact [direto com a pele da pessoa infectada]. It is essential not to do stigmatization, because the main form of transmission is skin-to-skin contact”
Swing
The Ministry of Health also updated the monkeypox case statistics. Across Brazil, the number of confirmed cases rose to 1,066, against 978 until yesterday. The cities with the most occurrences are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte.
The folder also gave more information about the first death of an infected in Brazil. The patient, a 41-year-old man from Belo Horizonte, was treated for cancer with chemotherapy, was immunosuppressed and died from complications caused by the symptoms of monkeypox. He was in a public hospital in the capital of Minas Gerais, went to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), but could not resist.
This afternoon, Spain also confirmed the first smallpox death of monkeys, the second outside the African continent. So far, seven deaths have been recorded across the planet in this outbreak of the disease. The country with the highest number of cases is the United States, with about 4,900 occurrences.
