Begins, next Monday (4), the 24th National Vaccination Campaign against influenza in the Federal District (DF). The goal for this edition is to vaccinate, by June 3, 90% of each of the priority groups, among the approximately 1 million people considered as a target audience.
According to the Government of the Federal District (GDF), in this first stage, elderly people from 60 years of age and health workers must be vaccinated. The second stage, scheduled to start on May 3, covers the “other priority groups listed by the Ministry of Health”. This stage is expected to end on June 3.
These priority groups include children from 6 months to 5 years old; pregnant women; puerperal women; Indian people; primary and higher education teachers; people with chronic noncommunicable diseases and other special medical conditions; people with permanent disabilities; truck drivers; urban and long-haul passenger road public transport workers; port workers; security and rescue forces; armed forces; officials of the deprivation of liberty system; and population deprived of liberty, adolescents and young people aged 12 to 21 years under socio-educational measures.
“As the influenza vaccination campaign will coincide with the vaccination against covid-19, the Health Department advises that priority is given to the administration of the covid-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years, who are members of the public. target”, informed the GDF in a note. In these situations, the note adds, the orientation is to respect the minimum interval of 15 days between vaccines for children aged 5 to 11 years. “For adults, there is no longer any need for an interval between the covid-19 vaccine and the other immunizations”, he adds.
The DF received 95,600 doses against influenza, which corresponds to 20% of the total of the groups in the first stage. According to the local government, the DF did not reach the vaccination coverage target set for last year. In all, 1,048,225 doses against influenza were administered in public and private networks.
“Of these total doses applied, 641,990 (61.3%) benefited members of some of the priority groups. The percentage of vaccinated target audience was 67.4%, not reaching the target of 90% and being the lowest in the last 10 years”, informs the GDF.
Symptoms
The incubation period for the influenza virus is generally two days, ranging from one to four days. Among the symptoms that usually appear are high fever followed by muscle, throat and head pain, in addition to a runny nose and cough. Fever is the most important symptom and lasts around three days.
Respiratory symptoms such as cough and others become more evident with the progression of the disease and generally persist for three to five days after the fever has disappeared. Some cases have serious complications, such as pneumonia, requiring hospitalization, local health authorities report.
“Transmission can occur through direct or indirect contact with respiratory secretions, by touching surfaces contaminated with the flu virus and then touching the hand, eyes, nose or mouth”, they add.
