Who has not been affected by covid this summer directly or indirectly? Mobility, vacations with travel, large festivals or fairs… These are all elements that facilitate the transmission of the virus, although in many cases the lack of diagnoses or unreported diagnoses have prevented a real photograph of what the situation has been. .
In a few days, the Health Department of the Andalusian Government will announce the dates of the new vaccination campaign, before which many citizens wonder whether or not they should be vaccinated, depending on their age, their health and their occupation. professional.
Doctor and geriatrician José Antonio López Trigo explains that seven risk or priority groups have been established for the vaccine. On the one hand, all those over 60 years of age, since age constitutes a risk. “It makes us more likely to suffer from any type of infection,” he explains. Then, those under 60 years of age, but who have some underlying chronic illness, mainly heart, respiratory, kidney or diabetes diseases. In addition, we should add those people who are at special risk because they are undergoing a process against cancer or have a serious illness.
Also within these essential groups are those people over five years of age who are institutionalized, that is, who are in a disability center, a care center for people with special needs, or those people who, although not over 60, live in some institution, such as a residence. «And on the other hand, those groups that we consider can be transmitting elements of the disease and that need special protection to care for, either people at risk in the aforementioned groups, or personnel who work in health centers and socio-sanitary. And not only the health personnel of these centers, but anyone who works in this field,” the doctor clarifies.
López Trigo also refers to a special group that constitutes pregnant women, and maintains that vaccination is recommended in any trimester of pregnancy. And finally, the State Security Forces and Bodies.
Despite the importance of vaccination in these groups as a priority, the geriatrician remembers that they have an added risk, but that the only way for the virus to infect in a different way, “in a minor way,” when it circulates is that the rest of the population is also inoculated with the medication. «If we get vaccinated now, the virus will not circulate so easily and then that group immunity effect will occur. It has been shown that when it circulates among vaccinated people, the consequences on health are less serious. Therefore, there is a universal vaccination recommendation.
However, the doctor is pessimistic about this universal vaccination. «I don’t see awareness about it and I don’t think it will happen. We have analyzed groups in which the virus has had a special impact in terms of severity. People who have been in the ICU, who have had pneumonia and who were no longer vaccinated correctly or had skipped the last vaccine. But in many cases they are people who did not have that complete vaccination schedule,” he laments.
Above all this, José Antonio López Trigo insists on a phenomenon that he finds “interesting.” «It is no longer that many people have not taken the test; is that we are only registering those cases in people over 60 years of age. Below that age it is not being registered, so what we are seeing in the increase in prevalence only corresponds to a specific sector of the population. This week, when the accumulated data from last week came out, the increase in prevalence in people over 60 years of age was 5%, which is a very important increase because we are not in the period of respiratory infections yet,” he warns.
Regarding the optimal date to begin this vaccination, the doctor recalls that it is a matter that is debated in the Interterritorial Health Council, which is where all the autonomous communities are incorporated with the Ministry of Health to make decisions. «The Interterritorial Council leaves it in the hands of each autonomous community. The forecast and the latest thing that the Ministry has promoted is that it will be in mid-October. It can be two days before or three days after,” he explains.
Summer data
The Malaga Fair, for example, was one of these events that showed the mobility of the virus in recent months. As the data from the Junta de Andalucía indicated in those days, 290 cases had been detected in 14 days in the province, while in Andalusia as a whole, 1,032 cases had been recorded in the last 14 days.
The total cases since the start of the pandemic in Malaga already amounted to 325,979, while in Andalusia they were 1,659,909. With this, the incidence in those 14 days at the end of August in Andalusia was 49.9, and in Malaga 70.6. Still, the trend was downward, especially when compared to last year. It must be remembered that in June 2022, a peak incidence of close to 500 points was reached.
According to some experts consulted, this incidence would not have to reflect the exact situation, since the mildest symptoms of covid do not prevent citizens from purchasing the tests, but they do prevent them from going to the health center or hospital, which is where they are They count the positives officially. To this we must also add that the purchase of the tests is carried out after the appearance of symptoms that do not have to be only Covid, such as the case of summer colds, flu or influenza A.
This increase was also preceded since the beginning of August by the sale of the antiviral drug Paxlovid – from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer – which had also increased in Malaga by 15 percent in the last month, according to data provided by the Bidafarma cooperative. Paxlovid is an antiviral medication made up of two drugs: one blocks a key enzyme that the coronavirus needs to replicate and the second blocks the metabolism of the first drug in the liver so that it does not leave the body as quickly.
This drug is indicated for the treatment of Covid-19 disease in adults who do not require supplemental oxygen and who have a high risk of progressing to severe Covid. Although the World Health Organization (WHO) announced last May that Covid-19 no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, in recent weeks the data has increased slightly.
2023-09-29 22:03:56
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