Brazil Approves Bill to Mandate Vaccination Updates During All Health Service Contacts

The Chamber of Deputies’ Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) approved Senate Bill 5094/19, which requires that every encounter with public health facilities—including hospital stays—trigger an update of a patient’s vaccination record. The measure, authored by the National Immunization Program law, exempts only medically documented contraindications or a patient’s expressed refusal, which must be recorded. It also obliges private health providers to counsel patients with incomplete vaccine schedules and refer them to the nearest public vaccination post.

Separately, health officials advise citizens who lose their physical vaccination card to request a copy of their records from the health unit where they were vaccinated or to use the My SUS Digital app, which can display existing immunization data. If records cannot be retrieved, clinicians will assess the individual’s age and health status to determine which doses are needed, rather than repeating all childhood vaccines.