2023-09-13 10:51:29
The third joint flu and covid vaccination campaign will begin at the end of September, coinciding with a time of slight increase in SarS-CoV-2 cases.
The joint vaccination campaign against flu and covid-19 will begin the last week of September and will be allocated to certain target groups such as those over 60 years of age, people at risk, pregnant women and health and social health personnel.
This is what the Public Health Commission in a meeting in which it has also approved recommending immunization against the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), which causes bronchiolitis, to at-risk babies – premature babies of less than 35 weeks, with severe immunosuppression, with Down syndrome or in care palliatives, among others- and for babies up to 6 months.
Everyone’s turn
In this case, the General directors of Public Health of the Ministry of Health and the communities have maintained the same criteria that they already outlined in Julywhen they established that, taking into account “the uncertainties regarding the availability of the drug in Spain”, the vaccination campaign had to begin with children up to 24 months old with a high risk of serious disease.
Then it will be passed to children under 6 months at the beginning or during the breeding season. VRSthat is, the born between April 1 of this year and March 31 of next year.
They will have to prioritize those born during the seasonwho “should receive nirsevimab very early, preferably in the first 24-48 hours after birth” due to the greater severity of the disease in the first days of life.
Those who were born earlier, from April onwards, “will be immunized as soon as possible”, with the ideal being that the majority will be immunized already in October.
Third joint vaccination campaign
Regarding flu and covid vaccines, it will be the third campaign that both are managed jointlyand that coincides with a moment in which they have been happening weeks of slight increase in SarS-CoV-2, which is now stabilizing: the rate is around 130 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in Primary Care and 3 cases requiring hospitalization.
The one that will be fifth dose of covid-19 is recommended for those over 60; people over 5 years of age housed in residences and disability centers or institutionalized for a long time and residents in closed institutions; under 60 in risk conditions – such as diabetes, cancer, kidney disease, etc. -, pregnant women in any trimester of pregnancy and women during the postpartum period and cohabitants of immunosuppressed people.
Also for the staff of public and private health and social health centers (except students for whom flu vaccination is only recommended) and essential public service workers.
As a novelty to the recommendations they approved in July, Staff from health establishments have been included in the vaccination campaign, such as pharmacies.
The joint vaccination campaign begins at the end of September. EFE/LUIS TEJIDO
For all variants
The vaccines that they will receive starting in the last week of September and during the month of October, depending on what each community organizes, “preferably” those adapted to the new variants will be; in Europe, only that of Pfizer, known as Comirnaty Ómicron XBB.1.5, already has the support of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Commission.
There are also other candidates: Moderna, which was authorized in the United States yesterday, and Novavax which, unlike the previous two, is not messenger mRNA.
In addition to the groups mentioned, the flu It is also recommended for people aged 5 to 59 years with a higher risk of complications. -those between 5 and 18 years old who receive prolonged treatment with acetylsalicylic acid and smokers-, students in internships in health and socio-health centers and people with direct occupational exposure to animals or their secretions on poultry, swine, mink or wildlife farms or farms wild.
And also for children from 6 to 59 monthswith which the This season’s children’s calendar is expanded with the pediatric flu season and the monoclonal antibody nirsevimab for RSV.
Public health alerts
Besides, Health has reported the monitoring of public health alerts carried out by the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES) during this summer, especially the botulism outbreak in which 13 cases have been recorded in June and July.
Furthermore, it has intensified surveillance of vector-borne diseases -in total they have been detected 5 human cases of West Nile virus in Spain this year– and the usefulness of the Platform has been demonstrated Mosquito Alert.
#Arrives #September