The Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, said this Saturday (20) that no country in the world has a plan for a mass vaccination campaign against monkeypox. After participating, in the Minas Gerais city of Ouro Preto, in the National Campaign D-Day of Vaccination, Queiroga recalled that there are still not enough vaccines to meet the world demand.
Despite this, he recalled that of the 100,000 doses of immunizing agents destined for Latin America by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), 50,000 will be destined for Brazil, to immunize professionals who deal with contaminated materials from people who need to be tested. According to the minister, when there are more vaccines, it will be possible to know the effectiveness of the immunizing agent.
The minister recalled that, unlike covid-19, which was a new disease, monkeypox is a disease that has been endemic in Africa since 1976. where the disease is endemic. Here in Brazil, a death was recorded in the state of Minas Gerais, which was not necessarily caused by the disease itself, but by the serious situation that the individual had”, he highlighted.
information campaign
For Queiroga, at this point it is important to inform the population about the disease. “Recently, the Superior Electoral Court authorized the campaign that the Ministry of Health will start broadcasting and we will structure our network of laboratories [para testagem]”, said.
The Minister of Health recalled that since May, when the first case of the disease was identified in England, the ministry began to structure a plan. “Today there are eight public laboratories in Brazil, which are able to make the diagnosis. The private sector also already offers this diagnosis,” he said.
He also added that, once the individual is suspected of having contracted the disease, he should be isolated until the diagnosis is confirmed: “if it is not confirmed, he returns to socializing. If the diagnosis is confirmed, then he will be isolated until the disease is cured, until the wounds disappear completely, since it is still a contagious disease”.
Another information that the minister highlighted is that, at the moment, most infected individuals are men who have sex with men. “This information is not meant to stigmatize, it’s not meant to discriminate, it’s just to give an epidemiological report and protect not only these people but everyone else,” he explained.
