Jorge del DiegoGeneral Director of Public Health and Pharmaceutical Regulations of the Ministry of Health and Consumption of the junta of Andalusiainsisted Thursday in Cordoba on the benefits of the flu vaccine for children aged six to 59 months.
Del Diego, as indicated by the Junta de Andalucía in a note, stressed the importance of vaccination against influenza and Covid-19 while the latest report from the Influenza Surveillance System of the Carlos III Health Institute “shows that we are ten times higher in influenza circulation than in the 2018-2019 season, this means that we are already above the threshold of flu epidemic.
The head of the council, who participated in the VI Congress of the Andalusian Society of Preventive Medicine, Public Health and Health Managementwhich will be closed this Friday by the Minister of Health and Consumption, Catalina García, warned that “if we take this value for children, we see that we are above 400 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, when the threshold of the flu epidemic is higher than 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants “.
For this reason, the head of Public Health and the Pharmaceutical Regulations has encouraged the continuation of art Infant influenza vaccination for all children aged six to 59 months. Since October 17, 16.4 percent of the 311,400 Andalusian children in this age group have received this vaccine.
Del Diego reiterated this It is “a safe and effective measure completely to help prevent the flu in children and to reduce the likelihood that they will pass the virus to other age groups.
Even the CEO, who remembered him in December, the second year of vaccination against Covid-19 will be celebrated, he explained that “we are immersed in the autumn vaccination campaign against the flu and the second booster dose of Covid-19”, which, he assessed, “is going really well”. However, she explained that this campaign was several weeks ahead of the usual process because “we understood that the circulation of the flu would also come sooner”.
This campaign started on October 3 with the Combined influenza and Covid-19 vaccination of people over the age of 80 and people institutionalized in residential centers for the elderly or in centers for the disabled. It has been extended to the over 65s since October 17, the date on which the flu vaccination also began for children between six and 59 months.
Furthermore, since 24 October, he has been vaccinated with the second booster dose of Covid-19 for over 60s and prison staff and inmates. From this date, state security forces and bodies, prisons and poultry or pig farmers are also vaccinated against influenza.
Until the date, 888,953 booster doses of Covid-19 and 1,175,517 doses of influenza were administered. 61.6% of the population over the age of 80 received the second booster dose of Covid-19 and 66.5% were vaccinated against the flu. In the age group over 60, 37.2 percent were vaccinated against Covid-19 and 52 percent of those over 65 against the flu.
The General Director of Public Health and Pharmaceutical Regulations He was accompanied by the regional delegate for Health and Consumption of Córdoba, María Jesús Botella; the president of the Andalusian Society of Preventive Medicine, Public Health and Health Management (Sampspgs), Rafael Martínez; the president of the organizing committee of this VI Congress, Inmaculada Salcedo, and the deputy mayor of the Municipality of Cordoba and Delegate for Inclusion, Accessibility and Human Resources, Bernardo Jordano.
To conclude, the manager highlighted that “this pandemic, both in-hospital and out-of-hospital, has put in value the figure of the preventive doctora specialty that, until now, was not so well known to the general population, but which carries out a fundamental job “.
Thus, Del Diego assured, «it happens as with vaccines: its success is its own death. When things work out, nothing seems to be done; However, they do an extraordinary job in all areas of infection prevention and control “.
