The death of an 18-year-old girl in a Malaga institution due to meningococcal meningitis has prompted vaccination specialists to once again send a message to families to consider a comprehensive vaccination program, especially for this disease.
There are a dozen types of meningitis, albeit at the moment There is only one vaccine for five variants: A, B, C, W and Y. The calendar has been stretched over the past two decades so that there can be young people immunized against only some strains and not against all, which is why pediatricians advise teens and their relatives to review theirs vaccination register to make sure they are immunized against the five types for which the vaccine is currently available. All they are free and are administered in health centers within the calendar through two vaccines (A, C, W and Y and B), which have different doses.
Immunization against meningitis began in Andalusian health service (SAS) free of charge in the year 2000. Only against the variant C, which was the vaccine available at the time. In 2020 it was expanded to an improved one that protects against strains A, C, W and Y. Since December 2, 2021, the anti-inflammatory drug is also administered. meningitis B. In January 2020, the SAS launched a three-year vaccination campaign for teenagers from From 13 to 18 years old that they were protected only against type C to give them the most complete vaccine (A, C, W and Y); An initiative that continues.
The Head of Pediatrics of the Quirónsalud Málaga Hospital, Manuel BacaAdvice who have these two vaccines (A, C, W and Y and B) and that the calendar is complete with respect to the other pathologies. He explains that thanks, among other things, to the containment measures of the pandemic (imprisonment, social distance and masks), in recent years the viruses have been slowed down. Then, after the decline of Covid, there was a “disorder” in their behavior, with the presence, for example, of the flu in the summer. He adds that now this behavior is regularizing and the situation is gradually returning to the pre-pandemic scenario. “It is a good time to review the vaccination schedule, check that everything is in order and that all doses have been taken”, insists the pediatrician. Furthermore, he guarantees that currently, Andalusia is one of the autonomous communities with the most complete calendar.
Until 2020, the SAS immunized only against meningitis C. But the spread of variants W, A and Y throughout Central Europe and the UK, the mobility of many Andalusian university students through those areas and the emergence of this more comprehensive vaccine (A, C, W and Y) eventually led the Council to include it starting that year. Like this at four months, a dose of meningitis C is given. After, at 12 months and 12 years the vaccine against variants A, C, W and Y is given. The latter is also given as a rescue vaccination between 13 and 18 years of age for those adolescents who in their day had only been inoculated against C.
On the other hand, the vaccine against meningococcus B it is given in three doses at two, four and 15 months. The born before 1 October 2021 they are not included in such immunization against meningitis B, but in this case, pediatricians advise parents to pay for it out of their own pocket to protect their children. “The SAS has made an effort to vaccinate all children and the highest risk groups are covered, but other ages remain. And that protection is always important,” says Baca. Clarifies that there is no age limit for vaccination against meningitis Bbut recommends that children and adolescents also be immunized against this strain.
“Gradually, progress is being made in the vaccination calendar, which was minimal and has been expanded to become one of the most comprehensive,” Baca insisted. I was pediatricians and the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP) those who have gone on to advocate for the incorporation of new vaccines. It is now on hold rotavirusanother request that this organization and specialists have been raising for nearly two decades.
