Authors: Ricardo Bordinhão.
Although the decision making for vaccination strategies is done individually it is strongly influenced by social and public policies. Over the last few years, the Brazilian National Immunization Program (PNI) has registered a 95% rate of national vaccination coverage, which is similar to the rates observed in developed countries. The current challenges to be overcome by the program in order to preserve its excellence are to maintain its high rates of vaccination coverage, access equality, vaccination coverage monitoring, and safety, among others. The aim of the present work is to analyze the development of the PNI program over the last decades along with its challenges and prospects for modernization and improvement. The research methodology used in the present work was one of descriptive and bibliographical survey based on the Brazilian population data. The collection of data occurred between May and June of 2017 in the city of Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil. Over the last years there has been a decrease in the rate of hospital admissions for the following diseases: measles, meningitis, tetanus, influenzas, pneumonia and others. Nevertheless, the access to information remains fragmented due to low informatization levels of the processes. The investments made in immunization generates countless benefits to the healthcare system and, consequently, to the health of the Brazilian population. Despite the high vaccination rates, the PNI program still needs improvements, especially in terms of modernization and informatization of the healthcare system. Nevertheless, its effective implementation demands investments for the acquisition and maintenance of new technologies, training of professionals, an organizational change, certification criteria and interoperability standards. Additionally, one of the main challenges for the PNI program is to align the strategies of verification and monitoring of disease risk perception and adverse events following vaccination (AEFV) among the different agents involved.
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