By Andrea Hargraves 
Next Monday (4) will begin the 24th National Influenza Vaccination Campaign in the Federal District (DF). The goal of this release is to pollinate, by 3 June, 90% of each of the priority groups, out of the nearly 1 million people considered to be a target audience.
According to the Government of the Federal District (GDF), in this first phase, the elderly from the age of 60 years and health workers must be vaccinated. The second phase, set to begin on May 3, covers “other priority categories listed by the Ministry of Health”. This phase is expected to end on June 3.
These priority categories include children from 6 months to 5 years old; Pregnant women postpartum Indian people primary and higher education teachers; Persons with chronic noncommunicable diseases and other special medical conditions; Persons with permanent disabilities; truck drivers; public transport workers on urban and long-distance passenger routes; port workers; security and rescue forces; Armed forces; workers in the system of deprivation of liberty; and the population deprived of liberty, adolescents and young people between the ages of 12 and 21 under socio-educational measures.
“Since the influenza vaccination campaign will coincide with the covid-19 vaccination, the Department of Health advises that priority should be given to giving the covid-19 vaccine to children aged 5 to 11 years, who are members of the public as the target,” the GDF reported in a note. The note adds that in these cases, the thrust is to respect the minimum interval of 15 days between vaccinations for children aged 5 to 11 years. “For adults, the interval between the covid-19 vaccine and other immunizations is no longer needed,” he adds.
DF received 95,600 doses of influenza, which corresponds to 20% of all groups in Phase I. According to the local government, the DF did not reach the vaccination coverage target set for last year. In all, 1,048,225 doses of influenza were administered in public and private networks.
“Of the total of these applied doses, 641,990 (61.3%) members of one of the priority groups benefited. The percentage of the vaccinated target audience was 67.4%, not reaching the 90% target which is the lowest in the past 10 years,” states the GDF.
symptoms
The incubation period for the influenza virus is generally two days and ranges from one to four days. Symptoms that usually appear include high fever, followed by muscle, throat and head aches, as well as a runny nose and cough. Fever is the main symptom and lasts about three days.
Respiratory symptoms such as coughing and others become more noticeable as the disease progresses and generally persist for three to five days after the fever is gone. Local health authorities reported that some cases had serious complications, such as pneumonia, that required hospitalization.
They add: “Transmission can occur through direct or indirect contact with respiratory secretions, by touching surfaces contaminated with the influenza virus and then touching the hand, eyes, nose or mouth.”