New regulation from the end of December 2019 has expanded the Portuguese National Immunisation Programme (NIP) (Diário da República, 2019).
The NIP is ongoing since 1965. It is implemented in all public primary health care units across the country and it is available for free for all citizens. Since its implementation in 1965, the Portuguese NIP has been progressively updated with new vaccines and schedules, having a major role in decreasing mortality and morbidity associated with preventable infectious diseases in the country (Rechel et al., 2019). In fact, Portugal is among the EU member states with higher vaccination rates (INE, 2020).
Following the latest revision by the Directorate General of Health (the technical body of the Ministry of Health), the Portuguese Government decided to expand the National Immunisation Programme by the end of 2019 (Diário da República, 2019), by including:
- HPV vaccine (including the genotypes for anogenital condylomas) for males at 10 years of age, applicable to all boys born after 2009, even if they have already started the vaccination scheme (HPV vaccine was available only for girls until now);
- Vaccine against group B Neisseria meningitidis (vaccine MenB) for all children born after 1st January 2019, at 2, 4 and 12 months of age;
- Rotavirus vaccine for risk groups, to be later defined by the Directorate-General of Health through clinical guidelines.
The new vaccination scheme will come into force on the 1st of October 2020.