2023-08-29 08:26:11
Updated Tuesday, August 29, 2023 – 08:26
Until now, the infant population with underlying pathology was vaccinated exclusively.
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The flu vaccine is extended this autumn, for the first time in all of Spain, to healthy children between 6 months and 5 yearswhich is an innovation, since previously the infant population with underlying pathology was vaccinated exclusively.
All the autonomous communities and cities of Ceuta and Melilla have already acquired the doses for this year’s flu vaccination, which will benefit 1.6 million childreneither the intranasal vaccine for those between 2 and 5 years old or the intramuscular one for the smallest (from 6 to 23 months), explains to EFE the member of the Vaccine Advisory Committee of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (CAV-AEV) , Javier Alvarez.
Last year, flu vaccination in this cohort of the child population was carried out only in three autonomous communities: Andalusia, Galicia and Murciawith “magnificent” results and coverage of 50%, affirms this expert, who aspires to achieve coverage in Spain of 55 to 60% on average.
Although these coverages seem modest, they are very important since significant impacts are achieved “and the virus stops circulating or does so in less quantityso not only those vaccinated but also the people around them benefit,” says this expert.
Álvarez specifies that the administration of this vaccine to healthy children is done “to protect those vaccinated, but also because they are the main transmitters of the flu mainly in schools and nurseriesand spread the virus to the people they live with.
This expert acknowledges that on the subject of the flu “it has been very difficult for the population to become aware that it is not a banal disease” and it is not without complications, especially in the smallest: “The flu must be taken seriously”, warns.
Between 20-40% of the child population affected
In fact, the flu It affects between 20 and 40% of the child population depending on the extent of the epidemic that year, and 5% of cases end in hospitalization due to its severity.
Two thirds of those children who are hospitalized are healthy, that is, they do not have an underlying disease, so it is recommended “to vaccinate everyone, vaccinating is always a value,” he reiterates.
Thus, this fall the flu vaccine, which is already on the calendar of the National Health System, will be administered to this cohort and to children with underlying pathologywhatever your age.
The flu can be co-administered with others: “the fewer vaccinations there are, the better since moments of stress overlap,” he adds.
The member of the WHO Permanent Group for Europe and honorary member of the Spanish Vaccinology Association (AEV), Amás García Rojas, has also spoken on this matter, who appreciates that this year the flu vaccine will include children heals by “its important role in spreading the disease”.
Speaking to EFE, García Rojas insisted that in countries where healthy children are already vaccinated “there is a marked decrease in flu cases in adults.”
Vaccine against Covid, for risk groups
Also this autumn, the vaccination campaign against Covid will be resumed with new serums, an intervention that, in the opinion of García Rojas, “will remain stable in the coming years” although only for the population at risk, on an annual basis and administered simultaneously with the flu vaccine.
“Covid has come to stay, it is not going to be diluted or blurred, it will continue with us and that implies that there will be profiles in the population with a clear risk who will be given a booster dose,” says the former president of the AEV.
New vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax adapted to Covid-19 variants will be administered this year. The groups called to receive this anticovid vaccine will be elderly, patients with risk pathologies, immunosuppressed, pregnant and health.
From Pfizer report that since most influenza vaccines are distributed in late September and administered in October, “the goal is to have the updated XBB.1.5 micron-adapted vaccine available at the same time.”
By Modern guarantee that their updated vaccine “has shown a significant increase in the neutralization of antibodies against the strains EG.5, FL 1.5.1″, and the XBB variant”, and “will be ready for the autumn vaccination with a sufficient world supply” .
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