The National Immunization Program will be further expanded. People with long-term covid, among others, are added to the group that can get a flu shot. In addition, young people between the ages of 18 and 26 can now also get an HPV vaccination. State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen writes this in a letter on Monday brief to the House of Representatives.
The cabinet has released extra money for the HPV vaccination campaign. The vaccination campaign for 18 to 26-year-olds can start at the end of 2022, writes Van Ooijen.
This concerns women who have not previously been vaccinated and men who were previously ineligible for the vaccine. It has already been decided that in addition to girls, boys can also be vaccinated against HPV from this spring and that the age for this will be reduced to ten years. A vaccination against HPV protects against cervical cancer, vaginal cancer, labia cancer, penile cancer, anus cancer and cancer of the mouth and throat.
Extra money has also been made available for the flu shot, so that the group that can get the shot for free can be expanded. In addition to the group of long-term covid patients, this concerns people with morbid obesity, dementia patients and all healthy pregnant women who are pregnant for more than 22 weeks.
All these people will be able to get a flu shot by 2022. Not everyone will be invited to this event yet this year, because it will take a while before the registration for these groups is in order.
No money for reimbursement for rotavirus jab
A vaccine for babies to protect them against rotavirus will not be reimbursed by the government. Van Ooijen says he regrets this. “We were able to free up the necessary extra money for the first two. That’s what happened. It didn’t work out for the rotavirus. Of course I would have preferred it differently, but because the financial resources are really limited at the moment, we have choices have to make.”
The rotavirus can cause inflammation of the stomach and intestines, especially in babies and toddlers. The infection can be severe; each year about 3,600 children under the age of five end up in hospital with it.
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