A vaccine for babies to protect them against rotavirus will not be reimbursed by the government. State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen (Public Health) has decided that because there is no money for it. The expansion of two other vaccinations will be reimbursed, he writes in a letter to the House of Representatives.
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This concerns an extension of the HPV vaccination in young people between the ages of 18 and 26. It concerns women who have not previously been vaccinated and men who previously were not eligible for the vaccine. It has already been decided that in addition to girls, boys can also be vaccinated against HPV from this spring and that the age for this will be reduced to 10 years. A vaccination against HPV protects against cervical cancer, vaginal cancer, labia cancer, penile cancer, anus cancer and cancer of the mouth and throat.
flu shot
An annual flu shot is also offered to more risk groups: to people with lung covid, with morbid obesity, with dementia and pregnant women from 22 weeks of pregnancy. They will usually be approached through their GP. There is another route for pregnant women, via obstetric care providers.
No money
With these extensions, the State Secretary is following previous recommendations from the Health Council. The council also wanted vaccination against the rotavirus, but Van Ooijen is not following this up. The rotavirus can cause inflammation of the stomach and intestines, especially in babies and toddlers. The infection can be severe; each year about 3600 children under the age of five end up in hospital with it. Some children die from the rotavirus.
Van Ooijen regrets that the necessary extra money could not be made available for all three groups in the Spring Memorandum, which was sent to the House of Representatives on Friday. “It didn’t work out for the rotavirus. Of course I would have preferred it differently, but because the financial resources are really limited at the moment, we had to make choices,” he says.
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