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City Hall begins study in Guaratiba with dengue vaccine in people aged 18 to 40
Published on 16/02/2024 - 13:04 | Updated on 16/02/2024 - 13:11
Dengue vaccination - Edu Kapps / Rio City Hall The city of Rio begins this Friday (February 16) a study with the dengue vaccine in the Guaratiba region, in the city's West Zone. Conducted in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the research by the Municipal Health Department (SMS) foresees the immunization of 2 thousand local residents aged 20 to 18 years old and with an active registration in one of the 40 Primary Care units in the region, which was chosen for the study due to its history of registering many cases of the disease. The vaccine will be administered in a staggered manner and the first to be served will be eligible users registered at the Mourão Filho CMS, in the Barra de Guaratiba neighborhood.
The Guaratiba region has approximately 67 residents in this age group registered with Primary Care. Since the research will involve 20 people, the month of birth was adopted as the criterion for defining participants. A draw was held and the months of May, August, October and November were selected. Thus, residents of the Guaratiba region (neighborhoods of Guaratiba, Barra de Guaratiba, Pedra de Guaratiba and Ilha de Guaratiba) aged between 18 and 40 years old and born in the four months drawn are eligible to participate in the research, except if they are pregnant or breastfeeding, if they have contracted dengue fever in the last six months, if they have immunosuppression problems or if they have received blood products in the last three months. The list of people eligible to participate in the research (date of birth, initials of names and first five digits of CPF) is published on this websiteParticipation is voluntary.
– This vaccine is already recognized by Anvisa, has already been tested and its efficacy has been proven. Here, we want to quantify this efficacy and observe how this vaccine will behave in the characteristics of the Brazilian population. These studies are important whenever a new vaccine is introduced. In 2021, for example, we conducted similar research on the islands of Paquetá and Maré with the vaccine against COVID-19 and, thanks to the evidence we gathered, we were able to collaborate in making important decisions about the introduction of booster doses – said the municipal health secretary, Daniel Soranz.
The national secretary of Health and Environmental Surveillance, Ethel Maciel, highlighted that the study in Guaratiba, with the age group of 18 to 40 years, will help the Ministry of Health in making decisions to expand the age group, which at the moment, for national vaccination, will include the population from 10 to 14 years old.
– The study will also assist the World Health Organization, as the scientific evidence generated here in Brazil could influence decision-making at an international level. This is the age group in which we have the highest number of cases in Brazil and worldwide.
– It is important to highlight that Brazil is the first country in the world to use this vaccine, this technology, in a public health strategy. The whole world is watching what we are doing – added the director of the National Immunization Program of the Ministry of Health (PNI), Eder Gatti.
Participants will undergo examinations and will be monitored
Vaccination at CMS Mourão Filho, for eligible users registered at the unit, will continue until February 23. On the 24th, it will begin at other units in the region. The schedule with the dates on which each unit will be covered will be released later.
Before starting the immunization, participants will fill out a consent form, answer a questionnaire with health data and undergo a serology test, which will determine which of them have already had contact with a serotype of the dengue virus. The vaccine will be administered in a two-dose schedule with a 90-day interval between doses, totaling 40 doses. The application of the first dose corresponds to the initial stage of the study. In the second phase, participants will complete the immunization cycle exactly three months after receiving the first dose. The research will last a total of two years, during which time participants will be monitored and scientists will collect information on cases, hospitalizations and deaths to observe the difference in the behavior of the virus between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.
– The objective of this research is to generate new scientific evidence on vaccination against dengue and to verify the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine in the context of our population, which has already had contact with the dengue, zika and chikungunya viruses. In the evaluations of the vaccine carried out by both the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health, and which supported its incorporation into the immunization program, there was a recommendation to carry out large-scale studies with the vaccine, as we are doing now – explained infectologist José Cerbino Neto, who coordinates the study in Guaratiba and also led the work carried out on Paquetá Island (“PaqueTá Vacinada”) in 2021.
About the Qdenga vaccine
Manufactured by the Japanese laboratory Takeda, the Qdenga vaccine was approved by the National Commission for the Incorporation of Technologies (Conitec), of the Ministry of Health, and incorporated into the Unified Health System (SUS). It is made with the attenuated live virus and interacts with the immune system in order to provoke a response similar to that generated by natural infection.
The vaccine provides protection against the four existing subtypes of the dengue virus (DENV1, DENV2, DENV3 and DENV4) and should therefore be administered even to those who have already had the disease.
