Analises of measles in Brazil in a 20-year time series: vaccination coverage and the number of cases in children under five years old

Vaccination is one of the most effective interventions for controlling the occurrence of infectious diseases, and it is essential to analyse vaccination coverage and homogeneity between municipalities. With this in mind, the aim of this study was to analyse the vaccination coverage of MMR and MMR, the homogeneity of the first dose of MMR and the number of measles cases in children under five in Brazilian regions, over a 20-year time series. This is an ecological study, based on secondary source data, in the Brazilian regions: North, Northeast, Southeast, South and Centre-West, from 2003 to 2022. The results showed that there was an increase in the number of measles cases as vaccination coverage fell, especially from 2018 to 2020, with a peak in 2019. The drop in homogeneity remains worrying: fewer municipalities are meeting the vaccination coverage target. The data presented in this study expands knowledge for discussion at meetings with managers, activities to intensify social communication strategies on prevention, immunisation and measures to interrupt measles outbreaks at national level and in the territories.