Primary health care nurses have reported constraints in the distribution of vaccines that are part of the National Vaccination Plan to the Order of Nurses (OE), the OE said today in a statement.
In the same report, the Order of Nurses explains that there is a shortage of “essential vaccines”, which protect the population against diseases such as Tetanus, Diphtheria and Hepatitis B, as well as hexavalent, pentavalent and tetravalent vaccines, which “provide vaccine protection against various diseases”.
According to the OE, these vaccines have been delivered to health centers in small quantities, which the order considers not to be “sufficient to meet the needs” of the population.
Quoted in the statement, Luís Filipe Barreira, president of the Order of Nurses, said that the order “is very concerned” about the lack of vaccines in the National Vaccination Plan and that “direct intervention by the Executive Directorate of the SNS is needed so that the problem can be resolved as soon as possible”.
“Portuguese nurses have ensured that our country has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, but without vaccines they can’t work miracles,” reads the note.
According to the organization, the lack of vaccines in Portugal could have implications for public health, by causing “a decrease in the number of individuals with timely and adequate vaccination coverage,” the statement concludes.
