Several medical experts expressed their concern about the need to update the Expanded Immunization Plan (PAI) in the midst of the National Congress of Pediatrics that is taking place in Barranquilla.
During a symposium led by the pharmaceutical company Sanofi under the name ‘Vaccine in childhood and adolescence: What do the experts say?’, some pediatricians recalled the debt that Colombia has in relation to influenza vaccines.
Although in several countries around the world they updated and began to apply a quadrivalent vaccine, in Colombia a trivalent formula continues to be applied.
María Garcés Sánchez, a member of the Vaccine Advisory Committee of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, told SEMANA that although she considers that Colombia’s vaccination schedule is “very good”, it can be improved.
“It is true that within the different subtypes that influenza vaccination has, it is necessary to distinguish that there are viruses A, B and C. While C generates mild symptoms, viruses A and B can cause more serious diseases. Specifically, the B virus is the one that affects children the most,” said the expert.
And he added that a characteristic of this type B is that it does not change drastically every year. In fact, he said that he has two strains that make spot mods: Yamagata and Victoria.
“What happen? That every year one or the other circulates. What pharmaceutical companies were asked to do long ago was to introduce protection against both. Trivalent vaccines do not have both, but one,” Garcés said.
However, in Latin America there are already several countries that have implemented the use of the quadrivalent vaccine, as announced during the symposium. Among other national states that have already adopted the measure are Costa Rica, Chile, Paraguay, Honduras, El Salvador, Uruguay, Mexico and Panama.
Garcés even pointed out that applying trivalent vaccines can be like “tossing a coin”, since you have to choose between the Yamagata and Victoria strains. To this extent, he warned that research has been done that shows the advantages of the massive application of quadrivalent vaccines.
For his part, Dr. Wilfrido Coronell, pediatric infectologist and PHD in Tropical Medicine, explained that to introduce a new vaccine it is necessary to carry out a detailed epidemiological analysis to find out which viruses are circulating, for example, in Colombia.
“The quadrivalent vaccine includes two influenza A serotypes and two influenza B lineages, but not all countries have the capacity to identify which A and B viruses are circulating. We in Colombia can only say that we have influenza B, but we cannot say which of the influenza B strains we have the most,” warned Coronell.
To this extent, he argued that sometimes the health authorities make the decision to provide their populations with vaccines against the strains that are circulating the most in other countries where epidemiological surveillance does manage to distinguish well between influenza lineages.
Are people getting sicker after the covid-19 pandemic?
During the National Congress of Pediatrics, several doctors stated that they have noticed an increase in the number of patients who go to the clinic for symptoms associated with respiratory diseases.
“Our immune system stopped having contact with most viruses, so we were in debt. Now that we are back to normal, that we are facing them, we are seeing that we do not have such a quick and appropriate response. That is why we see more severe pictures of up to two and three virus infections,” said the pediatrician.
In addition, he indicated that patients may present symptoms of respiratory diseases that last longer than usual.
And he asserted that the viruses that are circulating most frequently are respiratory syncytial virus in first place and influenza in second place. In addition, there are other viruses that circulate with less intensity, including rhinovirus, metapneumovirus, and parainfluenza.
To this extent, medical experts call for citizens to get vaccinated, especially in the case of the most vulnerable populations: children under five years of age and adults over 60 years of age.
In the case of influenza, the Medical Manager of Sanofi Vaccines for Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica, Julio Tresierra, assured that vaccination “is not only effective preventively, but if a person contracts it, being vaccinated could make the disease is less severe, shortening the duration of symptoms, decreasing the risk of admission to the ICU and death.
2023-07-07 23:32:10
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