Lula da Silva fires Brazil's health minister, announces replacement

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva fired the country's Health Minister, Nisia Trindade , on Tuesday night, and she will be replaced by the current Minister of Institutional Relations , Alexandre Padilha.

The decision was announced in a brief statement issued by the Brazilian government, which highlights that Lula da Silva “thanked the minister for her work and dedication at the head of the Ministry” of Health and also informs that Padilha will take office on March 6.

The resignation takes place on the same day that Lula da Silva and the former minister announced the large-scale production in Brazil of a single-dose vaccine against dengue fever , for people aged between 2 and 59, starting in 2026.

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Nísia Trindade was the first woman to lead the Brazilian Ministry of Health and, before that, she was president of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) during the covid-19 pandemic.

The former minister's technical profile was considered an asset at the beginning of Lula da Silva's current term, but the delay in delivering new programs and the difficulty in political articulation wore down the former minister.

Alexandre Padilha, a licensed congressman and a trained doctor, in addition to holding the position of Minister of the Secretariat of Institutional Relations in the current Brazilian government, was Minister of Health in the second term of Lula da Silva, between 2009 and 2010, and in the government of former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, between 2011 and 2014.