Dr. José Brea says that the vaccination plan against the virus is slow
EL NUEVO DIARIO, SANTO DOMINGO.- Dr. José Brea del Castillo, a pediatrician and infectologist, urged parents this Tuesday to take their children to be vaccinated against Covid-19 or give their consent when vaccination is house-to-house.
“Vaccination against Covid-19 is slow, I believe that parents and guardians should go en masse to vaccinate children from the age of five. I think the information has been there, the vaccination centers are open. We have safe vaccines in the country but I think there has been no support from the population to vaccinate children, “she said.
As for the rest of the country’s vaccination programs such as measles, rubella and polio, Brea said they are going well and that for a few months coverage has already begun to rise and there is no shortage of vaccines.
“We are talking about the routine schedule that is given from birth, since it is given at two months… on the contrary, there are too many vaccines, for example for adolescents, against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), we have also fallen short . People have not gone to give their adolescents their vaccines since they were 9 years old and there are leftover vaccines, ”he added.
In this sense, Brea is of the opinion that the population should approach the vaccination centers, inform themselves through the VacúnateRD platform and their phones to complete the schemes.
The measles and rubella vaccine is applied to boys and girls aged 1 to 5 years, while the polio vaccine is applied to children aged 2 years.
The Covid-19 vaccine is only applied to boys and girls between 5 and 11 years of age.
The also past president of the Dominican Society of Pediatrics, cites that the pandemic situation created a delay in the vaccination scheme and this lowered the coverage of regular immunization plans, due to confinement as a result of the Covid-19 disease.
“The information we have regarding coverage is that it has already begun to rise, there is no shortage of vaccines, in terms of routine schedules,” says Brea.
HPV vaccine
Questioned about vaccination against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and on the advice of specialists about applying this also to men, Brea told us that this would already be a decision that the Health authorities must make and adds that in Panama it is applied to men at the public level and that in Australia they have been vaccinated for more than 8 years also to men.
“The Latin American recommendation, from the Latin American Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, is that males or men from the age of 9 are also vaccinated,” he explained.
He adds that at the private level in the country men have been vaccinated for many years, but he understands that from the health authorities at the public level, a decision must come about the relevance or not of also vaccinating men.
Although in his opinion right now the most important thing is to reinforce the current vaccination program since he understands that if the current plan has not had positive support from the community, entering a vaccination for men would have to be weighed.
“If the program [de vacunas VPH], that there is for preadolescents from 9 years old or from 11 years old, at the school level, there has been no support from the community, to enter a vaccination of the same, in boys, I think we have to wait. Not because of the indication but for what, this system, this program is strengthened and accepted by the whole world”.
According to the VacunateRD portal of the Expanded Immunization Program (PAI), up to June 2, some 156,894 children had been vaccinated against Covid-19 with the first dose.
Brea was interviewed by during his presentation “Impact of influenza on chronic diseases and its prevention”, held within the framework of the XI International Congress of Family and Community Medicine 2022, held this weekend in Punta Cana and which featured specialists from cardiology, nutrition, diabetes, pediatrics, gynecology, among others.
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