Luanda – Angola has recently reinforced the BCG vaccine reserve with a batch containing 536,000 doses, the coordinator of the National Vaccination Program, Alda de Sousa, has said.
Each vaccine vial can immunize at least 20 users. In addition to this amount of BCG vaccines, which have already begun to be distributed to health units in the country, there are also doses of measles and polio immunizer.
Speaking to the daily newspaper Jornal de Angola, Alda de Sousa informed that there has not yet been a rupture of BCG vaccine reserves, as was believed in some circles, but a reduction in the quantities at central level, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Alda de Sousa, due to circulation restrictions imposed by the Covid-19, there was a reduction in vaccine supply and, because of this, hospitals resented, considering that the supply was not being made in the same quantities.
BCG is a vaccine indicated against tuberculosis and is usually administered right after birth in maternity hospitals or health centers.
The vaccine does not prevent infection or the development of the disease, but it prevents it from evolving and avoids, in most cases, the most serious forms of the disease such as miliary tuberculosis and tuberculous meningitis.
