Many Brazilians who have already received the first dose of the vaccine against covid-19 are failing to appear for the second application. “They will need the two doses again if too much time passes”, warns expert.
The Ministry of Health announced that, in April, 1.5 million people were in this situation, which jeopardizes the effectiveness of the vaccination process itself. Of the total number of people in the country who should have already taken the second dose, 143,015 would be residents of the state of Rio de Janeiro.
According to the doctor Alexandre Chieppe, a sanitarist at the State Health Secretariat of Rio de Janeiro, taking only one dose, in addition to not providing the necessary protection against the disease, will cause the waste of the first vaccine applied. “Once the person resumes vaccination, they will need the two doses again if much of the time they should take the second dose,” explained the specialist in an interview with the Sputnik Brasil news agency. Chieppe points out that the country faces a major challenge to immunize the population to “guarantee a relative return to normality”.
“It is essential both to optimize the necessary resources, as well as to guarantee people health and immunity against the new coronavirus, that all those people pay attention to the need to take two doses of the vaccine”, warned the sanitarist. “Only then is there a sufficient activation of our immune system to produce the necessary defenses, and not only against infection, but mainly protecting us against the severe forms of covid-19,” said Chieppe. The expert explains that the main reason for, eventually, people not taking the second dose is the false feeling that they would be protected with the first one (Source: Jornal do Brasil).
The conservation of immunobiologicals is another essential factor for the effectiveness of immunizations. Maintaining the vaccine in the temperature range between 2°C to 8°C is essential to preserve integrity and its immunizing characteristics. These conditions are provided by the scientific conservation chambers, equipment with specific technology for the correct storage of immunobiologicals. “Vaccines exposed to temperature variations can be inactivated, some of which change their appearance and alter their physical-chemical characteristics. For this reason, it is very important that health professionals who work with immunizations know the characteristics of the vaccines they administer and are familiar with the rules for their conservation and storage “, says Roberto Olivares, Commercial Director of Biotecno, one of the leading Brazilian brands in the medical and scientific conservation segment. Even so, 4 out of 10 Brazilian municipalities do not yet have conservation chambers in all health units. RDC 197/2017 prohibits the use of domestic refrigerators to keep vaccines, both in the public and private sectors, due to the high risk of temperature deviation and instability of these appliances.