Epidemiology of acute flaccid paralysis and vaccination coverage in the pediatric population of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil: an analysis from 2010 to 2019

Background: Acute Flaccid Paralysis or polio is a viral infectious disease that affects the motor neurons of the central nervous system and can be prevented through vaccination.

Objective: This study aimed to describe the number of acute flaccid paralysis cases in the pediatric population and to identify the relationship with vaccination coverage in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Methods: An ecological study was carried out in July 2022 from the health information of the Brazilian Health Unified System databases. The analysis comprised the number of notified cases and the % of vaccination coverage from 2010 to 2019 in seven health macro-regions (Valley, South, Mountains, North, Missionary, Metropolitan, and Center-West) in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Descriptive statistics were performed through absolute (n) and relative (%) frequencies.

Results: A total of 235 cases of polio were reported, with an increase from 3 cases in 2010 to 35 in 2019. At the same period, there was a decrease in the percentage of polio vaccination coverage in the State, from 92.3% in 2010 to 83.5% in 2019. The missionary region had the lowest numbers of cases in the period (n= 8), with a percentual vaccination coverage close to 100%. The highest number of absolute cases was in the Metropolitan region (n= 124), with vaccination coverage of 86%.

Conclusions: We observed a relationship between the increase in polio cases and the decrease in vaccination coverage. Thus, it is necessary to seek the minimum vaccination coverage goal recommended by the World Health Organization (≥ 95%), guaranteeing that morbidity brought by this disease is next to zero.

Publication History

Article published online:
18 September 2023