Action to encourage vaccination includes videos with testimonials from specialists and patients
Today, the AACD launches an unprecedented campaign to alert the Brazilian population about the risks of the return of poliomyelitis, infantile paralysis, to Brazil. According to data from the Ministry of Health, the vaccination rate against this pathology has been falling systematically since 2016, and in the last two years (2021 and 2022), it was around 70% coverage, well below the target stipulated by the health authorities, which 95%.
The action, which has the support of Sanofi, will consist of a series of six videos throughout the year, which will gain prominence in all AACD communication channels on social networks, with testimonials from specialists in the subject and patients of the Institution that until today face the consequences of the disease.
Poliomyelitis, whose contagion occurs through contact with secretions or feces of the sick person, can attack the nervous system and generate a paralysis that lasts for a lifetime.
It is an easily preventable disease with vaccination, which is available to the entire Brazilian population free of charge via the SUS, at health centers throughout Brazil. The act of not vaccinating is irresponsible on the part of parents and guardians, as it leaves the child vulnerable to a disease that can lead to death or generate sequelae that he or she will have to carry for the rest of their lives, says Dr. Alice Rosa Ramos, Superintendent of Care Practices at AACD.
Poliomyelitis is considered eradicated in Brazil since 1994, with the last case in national territory being registered in 1989. However, with the drop in vaccination rates in recent years, the Pan American Health Organization already considers the risk of reintroducing polio to be very high. disease in the country.
When the AACD was founded, in 1950, the vaccine did not exist, and that is why at the time there was a great demand for children in need of rehabilitation. And, to this day, the Institution receives adults and the elderly, who contracted the disease as children, and are people with physical disabilities who need specialized treatment.
The poliomyelitis vaccine must be taken in five doses – at two, four and six months of age and then with boosters at 15 months and four years of age. If there are children with delayed doses, it is also possible to take the immunizer outside these periods. The key is never to stop vaccinating.