More than 3,000 children from Almeria under six months of age will be able to receive the antibody against the respiratory virus that causes bronchiolitis this autumn, as the Andalusian Government has decided to incorporate this immunization into its vaccination schedule for the first time in history.
The incorporation was announced this week by the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno, who has highlighted its importance, since bronchiolitis is one of the most frequent reasons why parents take their babies to hospitals. emergency services and one of the main causes of hospitalization among children under two years of age.
To begin with, therefore, immunization will also serve to decongest Andalusian pediatric emergencies. “We hope that it will significantly reduce the saturation of the emergency room and pediatric wards”, added the head of the Andalusian Executive, who recalled that this year in Andalusia all children between the ages of six months have already been vaccinated against the flu and five years and from January 1 against human papillomavirus in boys at 12 years of age. The Andalusian president has detailed that the implementation of this new immunization will involve an investment of around 8.5 million euros.
not a vaccine
Although it has been included in the vaccination calendar of Andalusia, it is not a vaccine, but the application of a monoclonal antibody, that is, a defense that immunizes children for a period of five months, with which it should preferably be injected in the periods in which it is expected that it could coincide with peaks of the syncytial virus, which causes bronchiolitis, which usually has a seasonal incidence, as pointed out by the Almeria pediatrician and vaccine expert Francisco Giménez.
This antibody, which will now be applied to all babies under six months, has so far only been used with high-risk children who used to be injected once a month. The advantage of the new drug included in the Andalusian vaccination calendar is that it now offers five-month protection, which may be enough to face the period in which the syncytial virus usually appears. In principle, therefore, it will be applied to newborns in the epidemic season, although it is still to be defined in detail when and which babies will be immunized, since an instruction in this regard has yet to be published.
Along with this defense, it is also expected that a vaccine for pregnant women that protects their babies against bronchiolitis will be marketed shortly. In this case it will be a vaccine.
high incidence
Almería and other Andalusian provinces have suffered a wave of bronchiolitis last autumn and winter that has caused the hospitalization of a large number of children.
The symptoms of bronchiolitis usually begin with bouts of coughing, purple skin, shortness of breath, runny nose, and fever, which can worsen and eventually require medical attention and even hospital admission. In Torrecárdenas, some thirty children were admitted last November, some of them even in the ICU.
In principle, more than 3,000 children under six months of age in Almería may be immunized since it is the average of those born in this period in recent years, as soon as the Board gives the green light. Doctor Giménez proposes that once the moment is decided, newborns could receive the antibody, in principle, in their first days of life, so that during the following five months they are immunized.
2023-06-30 18:12:31
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