Expansion of Vaccination Calendar: Meningitis B and Bronchiolitis Vaccines for Children in Andalusia

The spokesperson for the PP of Andalusia in the parliamentary committee on Health and Consumption, Beatriz Jurado, has highlighted the “firm commitment” that the Andalusian Executive has made for health prevention and has highlighted “the reinforcement of the vaccination calendar, especially the Vaccines for the little ones. After pointing out the introduction of the meningitis B vaccine in 2021“which has been a very important help for many families who could not protect their children due to the cost of the doses”, Jurado has celebrated the incorporation of the bronchiolitis vaccine for newborns and babies under six months, “which will begin administered next fall throughout the community.

“A very important measure that will not only help us protect the little ones, but will also give many families a break,” he said. Likewise, she has assured that “we are aware of the anguish generated by the virus that causes this disease in the smallest due to the respiratory complications that it causes and, therefore, the frequency of going to the health center and, above all, the admissions that this bronchiolitis causes in the little ones”.

The spokesperson has indicated that the syncytial virus is the most common cause of respiratory infections Serious in children under one year of age, which can lead to complications such as pneumonia or bronchiolitis. After this, he reported that at the end of November of last year, the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) registered “the peak of hospitalizations of minors for this cause, with a total of 301 admitted children, of which 36 ended up in the ICUs of Andalusian public hospitals“. This new vaccine will be administered both to children being born from October 1, 2023 to March 31, 2023, in their first days of life, before being discharged, as well as to all infants born between April 1 and on September 30, 2023, whose families will be notified from the end of September.It will also be administered to children under 1 year of age with a history of prematurity of less than 35 weeks, as well as to other infants with very high-risk chronic pathologies who are up to 24 months old.

“According to the estimates of the Ministry of Health, about 60,000 infants will be able to benefit from this new vaccine,” Jurado assured. Along these lines, he stressed that this measure is in addition to the annual vaccination against influenza in children from six months to four years of age, “successfully started in Andalusia during the 2022-2023 campaign, having reached 45% of the target population , and of which we were pioneers together with Galicia and Murcia”.

2023-08-05 11:52:54
#infants #vaccinated #bronchiolitis #Andalusia