María Elena Soto Entenza, head of the Department of Primary Health Care of the Minsap.
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“The exchanges that we have had with parents and families, in the visits we have made to vaccinations and on social networks, we have collected a group of questions and questions. As a principle, all children and adolescents can be vaccinated, except, and there is what we call ‘exclusion criteria’, those who present an acute infectious disease at this time. When they recover from this acute infectious process, they can be vaccinated.
“Those who are receiving treatment with steroidal drugs and with high doses, while they are under the treatment cannot be vaccinated. Once they are finished and are under maintenance doses, from the consent of their family doctor they can be vaccinated ”, he clarified.
As for children living with chronic childhood diseases, he explained that “if they are decompensated, they cannot be vaccinated. If the underlying disease is compensated, they can be vaccinated. This is the case of children with cancer treatment. Those who are receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy, at that time are not vaccinated, but as soon as their cancer treatment ends and the disease is compensated, they join the vaccination.
“They are temporary exclusions for these reasons that were explained, there will be recovery processes for all these children who, for different reasons, cannot be vaccinated in a moment. We want to transmit peace of mind to parents who have children in these situations. There are all these possibilities.
“Colleagues at the Center for Medical Genetics have been asking about children with genetic diseases. These children can also be vaccinated, there is no contraindication, “he said.
“Now, who are we not going to vaccinate? Those who have been confirmed with covid-19. They will be vaccinated as convalescents in the coming weeks ”.
On this point, the head of the Ministry of Primary Health Care Department of the Minsap explained that the authorization of the vaccination for convalescent children to covid-19 is going through an approval process by the regulatory authorities. It will be applied first in the adult population and when the process advances, then vaccination will be carried out in pediatric convalescents.
In the case of those allergic to thiomersal, he assured that they will also be vaccinated. Some batches that do not contain this product are available. In the course of the next few weeks, vaccination will begin, in a process that will be developed gradually to reach this entire population group.
“In all vaccinations there are the conditions created for, in any situation of a child with any type of allergy or adverse reaction to any of the components of the vaccine, to be able to act accordingly. However, it is a really low percentage.
“We have been asked about children who take medications such as antihistamines or have used interferon or Nasalferon. None of this contraindicates vaccination. Always, in all cases, an evaluation of the children’s health is made, and from there the decision to vaccinate is made.
“Young people who are close to 18 years old and are not integrated into the teaching process are also going to be vaccinated. Those in school were prioritized, but from there these other young people entered, because we are going to cover this entire age group, ”he said.
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