“Main defense vaccination for fragile patients”

2024-02-05 18:26:00

“Vaccination is the main defense we can implement to prevent a series of pathologies and ensure that, if we were to get infected anyway, we have a less serious disease. This is what vaccination is for. In this sense, it is precisely the most fragile people, i.e. immunosuppressed subjects or those with chronic co-morbidities, such as heart or kidney disease, who, in the case of infectious diseases, experience more serious consequences. This is why they are the ones who must be vaccinated as a priority”. Thus Massimo Andreoni, professor emeritus of Infectious Diseases and scientific director of the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (Simit), speaking on the sidelines of the conference organized by the UOC of Infectious Diseases, on the Vaccination Center hospital (CVO) for fragile and immunocompromised subjects, activated in May 2023 at the Tor Vergata Polyclinic (PTV). The aim of the event was to present the work done to date by the PTV CVO, giving the floor to all the specialists and to the pathology areas involved in the vaccination project in the hospital.

“Establishing a vaccination center within a hospital is useful precisely because the most fragile patients often have more difficulty going to the area to get vaccinated, especially if they have that vaccination hesitancy that is so talked about today. Inside the hospital they have their reference doctors, such as oncologists, hematologists, all those who follow patients with chronic problems. These doctors – underlined Andreoni – can best motivate the patient to get vaccinated. Therefore, having a vaccination center within the hospital that can vaccinate them immediately, at the same time as the doctor recommends the patient to get vaccinated, greatly increases the probability of success and protection for patients. A result that at the Tor Vergata polyclinic – added the expert – was also possible thanks to the contribution of the general director Giuseppe Quintavalle”.

The Center has been operational for several months now and has already vaccinated many immunosuppressed patients and those with comorbidities. “The outcome of the center is absolutely positive and represents a model that should be followed in many Italian hospitals. The idea is to further expand vaccination by offering administration more days a week, giving greater availability and with even wider coverage,” he concluded.