Rotavirus Vaccine to Reduce Hospital Admissions in Children Under 5 Years: Expert Interview

Rotavirus infection is the first cause of acute gastroenteritis in children under 5 years of age, so the vaccine, which can be administered from this year until the end of 2025, according to the deadline given by Health to the communities, could reduce between 70 and 90% of babies’ hospital admission.

In an interview with EFE, the president of the Spanish Association of Vaccinology (AEV), Jaime Pérez, explains that this percentage is deduced from national and international literature, although he emphasizes that the importance of this vaccine, which has been used privately for 15 years , is that its inclusion in the calendar “reduces inequity”, since, with a cost close to 200 euros in pharmacies, it was exclusive to those parents with more economic resources.

The inclusion in the schedule of the rotavirus vaccine, which will be inoculated orally to more than 300,000 babies starting this year, is already incorporated into the health services of Castilla y León and Galicia, and this semester Murcia will do so. The rest of the communities will join progressively, as they adjust their health budgets.

The Vaccine Presentation has endorsed its cost-effectiveness, a justification that the Public Health Commission, where the autonomous communities and the Ministry of Health are represented, needs for its introduction into the children’s calendar.

According to the Ministry of Health, mortality from rotavirus as the main cause is “non-existent in Spain today”, however, premature babies can present serious complications. Approximately one in four children requires hospitalization, more common in premature babies or children born with low weight.

The president of the AEV values ​​​​the good reception of childhood vaccines. “In general, in these vaccinations there are no reluctant parents, pediatrics has always given very clear messages in favor and the coverage in the first year of life is extraordinary, 95%.”

He comments that there are certain vaccines in which very broad coverage is needed to have what is called group protection but this is not the case with rotavirus: “we do not expect it to stop circulating, what we trust is that it will reduce the burden of illness, whether mild, moderate or severe.

Open vaccination to more hours and non-working days

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This specialist in preventive medicine and public health also refers to the flu virus, which reached its epidemic peak in the last week of December, according to data from the Carlos III Health Institute, and considers that what could have influenced this outbreak was that vaccination campaign began “a little later”, waiting for Covid vaccines for inoculation at par.

Pérez maintains that, in Spain, campaigns have to be more open to the population, with longer hours, including non-working days and weekends.

The possibility of vaccinating in pharmacies should also be debated “as vaccination centers were once enabled due to Covid-19,” he points out.

And vaccinating in pharmacies is an option in many European countries, which have authorized pharmacists to administer vaccines at least during the respiratory virus season.

He cautions that these possibilities should be discussed. “We are not free from another flu epidemic peak returning” and if that circumstance occurs, she comments, new campaigns would have to be opened to administer the available vaccines.

RSV vaccine for the elderly and pregnant women: there is no recommendation

Regarding the new vaccine against the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) for people over 60 years of age and pregnant women that is already available in Spain, Pérez comments that there is still no official recommendation “neither positive nor negative, its evaluation by the Vaccines and Vaccines Presentation is missing. the Public Health Commission”.

This expert does not take a position on its effectiveness, given that it is a very recently authorized vaccine and although it may benefit the elderly, with a significant burden of this virus, “context and situations must be assessed.”

2024-02-04 08:22:11
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