RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian government announced on Friday the purchase of vaccines is double of that from the previous year in order to tackle the outbreak of measles in the country.
According to the Health Ministry, the purchase amount of MMR vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella jumped from 30.6 million in 2018 to 60.2 million in 2019.
The move aims to ensure the vaccination of 39 million Brazilians aged one to 49 who may not have been inoculated.
"The ministry works to contain the outbreak in the country and eliminate, once more, measles from Brazil," the ministry stated.
The vaccine distribution in Brazil will be the largest in a decade, the ministry added.
According to the ministry's exec secretary, Joao Gabbardo, immunization is a priority to the government and there will be no shortage of vaccines, as the government bought enough vaccines stock for the next 12 months.
In 2019, Brazil registered 4,476 cases of measles from January until September 18, and 3,906 cases among them occurred from late June to September, according to the latest ministry report.
The disease is mostly concentrated in Sao Paulo state, which has clocked over 90 percent of the confirmed cases, but there were a small number of cases reported in other 16 states.
There were four deaths by measles registered this year so far, three of the victims were babies younger than one while the other was a 42-year-old. None of the four victims had been vaccinated.