Vaccines: find out if you have taken all doses since childhood – 10/28/2023 – Health

Amid the growth of infectious diseases, such as meningitis and polio, and due to the low vaccination coverage seen in the country since mid-2015, many people wonder how to know if they received all the vaccines recommended in the children’s calendar when they were young.

This is a common doubt; People, however, may be embarrassed to do so for fear of appearing negligent or forgetful about their health care. But, in reality, the habit of keeping track of how many doses of vaccine we take is more recent — and it exploded during the Covid pandemic.

The first thing to know is whether you were born before or after 2013, explains Brigina Kemp, from COSEMS/SP (Council of Municipal Health Secretaries of São Paulo). This is because, before 1990, there was no computerized system, and the record was on paper and kept on file in the vaccination room. From 1990 to 2013, the SI-API system was created, which only recorded doses applied per municipality, but not per person. “So you went with your vaccination card and the municipal employee wrote [ou carimbava com os lotes] the doses received, but there was no nominal record”, he states.

The vaccination card was, therefore, an important document — the only personal record proving immunization. “We ran campaigns in the press to say that the wallet [de vacinação] was as important as the ID”, he reports.

As of 2013, vaccination records began to be included in a new program launched by the Ministry of Health, the SI-PNI (National Immunization Program Information System). “We received support from the ministry to purchase computers compatible with the software, and the idea was that all 5,570 municipalities would use the same system. However, the implementation took a while because some municipalities had their own systems, others took a while to make the acquisitions “, it says.

The migration to the nominal system, therefore, did not occur at the same time throughout the country. Furthermore, the electronic medical record platform e-SUS APS (Primary Health Care) was launched a few years later, which allows recording data on care at UBSs (Basic Health Units) and vaccinations.

It was around this time, in 2015, when vaccination indicators began to decline in the country, reaching their lowest levels in the last year, 2022.

These data must be looked at with great caution, says José Cássio Moraes, from USP, precisely because of the difficulties in recording doses applied during the period. “We know that Brazil has problems with internet signal interruptions, that it is not the same everywhere, that the speed is not the same, that the systems are overloaded. So filling out the form so that the system can face these barriers, so some information takes time to be updated”, he explains.

With Covid, some states also started to have their own systems, as is the case with VaciVida, in the State of São Paulo.

“This leads to complexity and difficulty, because there are several possibilities for inputs and vaccination data,” says Kemp. But all information must be sent to the Ministry of Health’s central system.

At the beginning of the year, the secretary of the Department of the National Immunization Program, Eder Gatti, announced the launch of a single system, the RNDS (National Health Data Network). The objective is to centralize all national health information on this platform.

For this reason, if a child or adolescent was born in a municipality and took the first doses there but, at some point, moved to another, the data may take time to be cross-referenced, especially if the municipalities have individual systems. “I know that now the Ministry [da Saúde] is trying to organize all systems, unify”, said Moraes.

The system will also include data from private vaccination clinics, facilitating information.

WHAT TO DO IF I LOST MY WALLET

Finally, Kemp explains that, in practice, anyone who is late can come to the clinic and receive a dose of vaccine, even without a vaccination card, as long as it is indicated for their age group. “If you are unsure whether you have had it or not, the staff in the vaccination room will give you a new dose, if it is a booster, or start the vaccination schedule,” he said.

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Vaccines included in the calendar:

CHILDREN’S CALENDAR

1. BCG (single dose at birth)

2. Hepatitis B (birth dose)

3. Poliomyelitis 1, 2 and 3 (inactivated vaccine — three doses at two, four and six months — and two oral boosters)

4. Poliomyelitis 1 and 3 (attenuated oral vaccine – booster doses at 15 months and 4 years)

5. Human rotavirus (two doses — two and four months)

6. Pentavalent (diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae b) — three doses with two DTP boosters (two, four and six months)

7. Conjugated pneumococcal (two doses — two and four months — and a booster at twelve months)

8. Meningococcal (two doses — three and five months — and a booster at twelve months)

9. MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) — two doses at twelve months

10. Tetraviral (measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox) — one dose at 15 months

11. Hepatitis A (one dose at 15 months)

12. DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis — three doses with two boosters — at 15 months and 4 years)

13. dT (diphtheria and tetanus) — three doses (consider the previous doses of penta and DTP) from the age of 7

14. Quadrivalent HPV (two doses —9 to 14 years old)

15. Pneumococcal 23-valent (two doses from 5 years of age)

16. Varicella (chicken pox — one dose from age 4)

17. Yellow fever (mitigated —one dose at nine months— and a booster dose at 4 years of age)

ADOLESCENT CALENDAR

1. Hepatitis B (start or complete three doses, depending on vaccination status)

2. dT (diphtheria and tetanus — every ten years)

3. Yellow fever (single dose)

4. MMR (start or complete two doses, depending on vaccination status)

5. HPV (9 to 14 years old)

6. Meningococcal ACWY (conjugated —11 to 14 years)

PREGNANT WOMAN’S CALENDAR

1. Hepatitis B (start or complete three doses, according to vaccination history)

2. dT (diphtheria and tetanus —start or complete three doses, according to vaccination history)

3. dTpa (diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough — one dose for each pregnancy)

CALENDAR FOR THE ELDERLY OR ADULT

1. Hepatitis B (start or complete three doses, depending on vaccination status)
2. dT (diphtheria and tetanus — every ten years)
3. Yellow fever (single dose)
4. Triple viral (two doses —20 to 29 years old— one dose —30 to 59 years old)
5. Pneumococcal (two doses —60 years)
6. Chickenpox (one or two doses depending on the manufacturer — from 18 years old)
7. dTpa (diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough — one dose every ten years)