Fiocruz survey focused on children aged 6 months to 3 years
Since March 2020, when covid-19 began to spread in Brazil, the disease has caused the death of 539 children between 6 months and 3 years of age in the country. This number, reached in just over two years of the pandemic, is more than triple the total number of deaths that 14 other diseases caused together in a period of 10 years.
Between 2012 and 2021, neurotuberculosis, miliary tuberculosis, neonatal tetanus, tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, measles, rubella, hepatitis B, mumps, congenital rubella, congenital viral hepatitis, and meningococcal meningitis type B took the lives of 144 children out of 6 months and 3 years old. Although they are diseases capable of killing, all of them can be prevented by vaccines.
The survey, released today (25), was carried out by researchers from the Observatory of Childhood Health of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). They made the comparison using data from the Mortality Information System (SIM), developed by the Ministry of Health.
The 14 diseases considered in the survey are part of the Brazilian List of Avoidable Deaths for children under 5 years of age. It is a relationship created by child health specialists under the coordination of the Ministry of Health. Some of these diseases have not caused any infant deaths in the last 10 years. One example is polio, which has been eradicated in the country since 1994.
Unlike the 14 diseases, there is still no immunizer against covid-19 approved for the age group studied. Two weeks ago, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) authorized the use of the CoronaVac vaccine in children between 3 and 5 years of age. Those over 5 years old had already been covered by the National Immunization Plan (PNI) since January.
