Low Response to Flu Vaccination Campaign in Argentina: Importance of Vaccines for Prevention of Diseases

The low response to the flu vaccination campaign this year, even among the highest-risk population, was pointed out by the Argentine Society of Vaccination and Epidemiology (SAVE), which warned that six out of ten people in our country do not receive it. they applied. The entity launched a campaign aimed at remembering the importance of keeping flu, pneumonia and Covid vaccines up to date.

Official data indicated that by the end of May only 29 percent of the children had received the first of the two doses of influenza indicated in this age group and only 19.6 percent of the second, while they were vaccinated only one in four pregnant women.

“Strikingly, four out of ten members of the health team, a group very susceptible to contagion, had not yet been immunized,” they warned from that entity.

It should be noted that, according to the figures from the latest vital statistics report from the national Ministry of Health, 63,018 Argentines died in 2021 from diseases related to the respiratory system, of which 33,812 corresponded to flu and pneumonia. This represents 8.2 percent of the total deaths from known causes during that year.

Although there are multiple factors that affect people not to go to vaccinate, it was detailed that at this time there would be a low perception of the risk of disease, even when it is considered that this tendency to minimize arises, perhaps, as a reaction to the intense fear that was experienced during the pandemic. Once this was largely overcome, not a few people lowered their guard, it was stated from SAVE.

Another aspect mentioned by infectologists alluded to the fact that many health professionals “do not indicate getting vaccinated, not because they are against it, but because there is a lack of training in the specialties regarding the calendar and the importance of applying these vaccines in the population at risk.”

In this sense, the need for all specialists to “keep in mind the vaccination schedule to take advantage of the contact that the patient has with the health system and indicate the vaccines” was emphasized.

Vaccines are decisive for the prevention of diseases, because they help people’s bodies to improve their defenses against different pathologies.

Another aspect to take into account -and that could be focused on by the health authorities- is related to the serious problems that have arisen for many years, when flu vaccination campaigns are promoted, while health centers and pharmacies are lacked the necessary doses.

This could also lead to some type of reluctance among the population, affected on those occasions by bureaucratic or other issues, which generated this contradiction between the awareness campaigns that were promoted and the lack of vaccines.

Be that as it may, it is not necessary to go into arguments to substantiate the importance of guaranteeing the full effectiveness of vaccination programs.

In the current year, there were no known references about missing doses, so that the State should intensify the actions aimed at ensuring that the population complies with the preventive calendar.