More than ten thousand minors, aged between 6 months and 5 years old (59 months), were summoned this weekend to the pediatric consultation area of the Álvaro Cunqueiro hospital to get the flu vaccine.
To date, only one in three children in the area have been immunized against this virus. In the Autonomous Community as a whole, the average attendance is 32%, so Sergas has decided to launch a massive call and open Galician hospitals this weekend to facilitate care.
In the municipalities of the Vigo area, 4,342 children of these ages have been vaccinated since this possibility was opened, according to the latest report published by Sergas with data collected up to last Sunday. They represent 28% of the total, being a population made up of 15,507 boys and girls.
Vigo is the health area with the third lowest percentage of vaccinated people, after Ourense and Pontevedra, while the one with the highest participation is Santiago with 41%, perhaps because its head of Pediatrics, Federico Martinón-Torres, is an expert of vaccines and has is one of the biggest “cheers” of childhood vaccination. The second is A Coruña, with 35.4% vaccinated.
Cunqueiro has set up a device to make things easier for families, with reserved parking spaces at the hospital in the area closest to the Pediatrics (the first half hour is free), with information staff to indicate the route to take and administrative staff to check appointments . A waiting room has also been set up for the vaccinated to wait about ten minutes after the injection in anticipation of possible reactions. The campaign began early in the morning with four vaccination points, which inevitably brought out some childish cries that gradually disappeared as soon as the little ones left the clinic. The vaccination time is from ten in the morning to eight in the afternoon and the families received the appointment with a text message from Sergas.
So far the infant population has been the most affected by respiratory viruses, even if in the last week the influx of patients has decreased somewhat in the Pediatric Emergency Department of Cunqueiro, where a few weeks ago the record of 300 attendances was exceeded, almost three times the usual average, and in educational centers there were many empty or semi-empty classrooms.
Respiratory viruses always appear first in children and a few weeks later spread to adults. The flu epidemic was already growing among the elderly. Sanidade continues the flu vaccination campaign, which in the Vigo health area has reached 97,768 people over 60, 58% of candidates in this age group, with data up to the 21st of this month. In Galicia, 67% of over-60s have already been vaccinated, with a follow-up differentiated according to age group: 51% between 60 and 69 years of age, 75% between 70 and 84 years of age and l 83% among the over eighty-five year olds.
