Portugal remains an international reference in vaccination, with 98% to 99% of children vaccinated in their first year of life, as per the 2024 annual report of the National Vaccination Program released today by the Directorate-General of Health.
“The coverage remains very high up to six years of age, generally reaching or surpassing the 95% target,” the report highlights.
The DGS emphasizes that 86% of children born between August 2024 and March 2025 in mainland Portugal were vaccinated against the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) during the first seasonal immunization campaign.
According to the health authority, “the high coverage achieved contributed to a substantial reduction in RSV hospitalizations in children up to six months of age.”
The report also notes an increase between 2023 and 2024 in the vaccination coverage of the first and second doses of the vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR).
At two years old, the increase was from 98% to 99%, and at six years old, from 95% to 96%.
The report states that the vaccination coverage against HPV (human papillomavirus) infections in girls remained high, exceeding the 90% target.
In boys, there continues to be a progressive increase in vaccination coverage in the different age groups analyzed, approaching the coverage rates achieved in girls, and surpassing the 90% target in the 15-year age group.
For the combined vaccine against tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, and poliomyelitis (DTPaVIP), coverage reached 93% in children who turned six years old.
The data also indicates that, for the vaccine against N. meningitidis serogroup B (MenB), 97% of children who turned two years had completed the three-dose schedule.
Regarding vaccination against whooping cough during pregnancy, data estimates that in 2024, about 80.4% of eligible pregnant women were vaccinated with the Tdpa vaccine.
In 2024, 370 cases of suspected adverse reactions to vaccines included in the National Vaccination Program were reported, which corresponds to about 12.8 cases of adverse reaction notifications per 100,000 vaccines administered.
Of these, 215 were considered serious, equating to 7.5 serious adverse reaction cases per 100,000 vaccines administered.
The DGS clarifies that “the notification of a suspected adverse reaction does not imply, by itself, a causal relationship between the vaccine administration and the reported event,” stating that each case requires an individualized technical assessment conducted by experts from the national medicines authority (Infarmed).
Last year, 3,038,148 registrations and 246,072 transcriptions were made in the “Vaccines” information system for residents in mainland Portugal, and developments are underway in the “Vaccines” system for “better characterization of administrations carried out under the National Vaccination Program.”
For the first time, the Annual Report 2024 of the National Vaccination Program delineates vaccination results by municipality.
The Director-General of Health, Rita Sá Machado, states in the document that the results disaggregated by municipality make “visible some of the geographical asymmetries that constitute potential strategic targets for action, not only by health professional teams but also by all relevant partners, including civil society, who are motivated to develop initiatives that contribute to this legacy that is for everyone and by everyone.”
The DGS also released the Report on the Seasonal Vaccination Campaign for autumn-winter 2024-2025, which recorded nearly 4 million vaccines administered, in NHS units and community pharmacies.
This campaign was reinforced with the introduction of a high-dose flu vaccine for the population aged 85 or older, which also achieved very high vaccination coverage rates.
The highest vaccination coverage was observed in the population aged 85 years or more. Conversely, the lowest coverage was seen in the population aged between 60 and 64 years, both for COVID-19 and flu vaccinations.
