Flu vaccination does not fully penetrate among children under 5 years of age, who are being immunized for the first time in Extremadura against this respiratory virus. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, Only 30% of families have decided to vaccinate their sons or daughters between six months and five years of age (59 months).This means that around 10,000 minors from Extremadura have been pricked out of the more than 34,000 that make up the target population.
These data contrast with the high coverage of vaccination against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)known as the vaccine against bronchiolitis, which is also inoculated for the first time in Extremadura, but which has reached 98.9% of the target population (those under six months of age and up to two years if they have risk factors). And this good acceptance “is helping to reduce the pressure on primary and hospital care” due to bronchiolitis or pneumonia in babies, they acknowledge from Health.
Flu vaccine coverage is also higher among those over 60 years of agereaching 54% of the population last week, and among those under 60 who have risk conditions, of which almost 65% of the target population have been vaccinated.
Therefore, it is the flu immunization of the little ones that is least close to the desired figures, although the truth is that the campaign remains open and the data can still grow in the midst of a rebound in respiratory viruses after the arrival of winter and the Christmas holidays. It is the recommendation of pediatricians, who encourage the puncture to avoid major problems in the little ones and avoid hospital admissions.
This year is the first time that the flu vaccine has reached healthy children under 5 years of age in Extremadura. It is the first year and, as has already happened in other communities that began last year with this vaccination, It was foreseeable not to reach the expected data. This is what happened in Galicia or Murcia, which last year broke ground in Spain. In both communities, half of the minors who were called for it were vaccinated.
The possible causes
The reasons why this vaccine does not take effect can be varied: from a late arrival of the cold, the involvement of pediatricians or a low perception of the severity of the flu in children compared to other viruses such as RSVuntil the lack of institutional promotion from the health authorities about this pediatric flu vaccine, as both the Spanish Association of Pediatrics and the Spanish Association of Vaccinology have criticized.
The Vaccine Presentation of the Ministry of Health, which approved last year to include healthy children as a risk group for this year, recalled that, although the flu has a “minimal” mortality rate in children under 15 years of age (it is estimated that Five children under the age of five can die each year from this virus), yes causes “a high number of medical visits to Primary Care, use of antibiotics and hospital admissions” and therefore they should also be considered as a risk population. Added to this is also the impact that vaccinating children has directly on less flu circulating, since the youngest are the group that has the most viruses every winter.
2024-01-03 06:00:48
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