The Director General of Public Health and Pharmaceutical Regulation of the Ministry of Health and Consumption from Giunta from Andalusia, Jorge del Diego, insisted in Córdoba on the benefits of the vaccine flu shot for children from six to 59 months.
As the Junta de Andalucía indicated in a note, Del Diego underlined the importance of vaccination against the flu and Covid-19 while the latest report from the Influenza surveillance system of the Carlos III Health Institute “It shows that we are ten times above the flu circulation level of what we were in the 2018-2019 season, this means we are already above the flu epidemic threshold.”
The head of the Council, who participated in the VI Congress of the Andalusian Society of Preventive Medicine, Public Health and Health Management, which this Friday will be closed 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 flu epidemic threshold is below above 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants”.
For this reason, the Public Health and Pharmaceutical Regulations Officer has encouraged children between the ages of six and 59 months to continue with the childhood flu vaccination. Since October 17, 16.4% of the 311,400 Andalusian children in this age group have received this vaccine.
Del Diego reiterated that it is “a completely safe and effective measure to help prevent flu in children and to decrease the likelihood of them passing the virus on to other age groups.”
Similarly, the director general, who recalled that the second year of vaccination against Covid-19 will take place in December, explained that “we are immersed in the autumn vaccination campaign against the flu and the second dose of Covid-19 as I recall -19 ”, which, he assessed, “It’s going really well.” However, he explained that this campaign was brought forward by several weeks compared to the usual process because “we understood that the circulation of the flu would also be brought forward”.
This campaign started on October 3 with the combined vaccination against influenza and Covid-19 of people over 80 and people institutionalized in residential centers for the elderly or in centers for the disabled. It has been extended to over 65s starting from 17 October, the date on which flu vaccination also began for children between six and 59 months.
Furthermore, since 24 October, people over 60 and staff and inmates of prisons have been vaccinated with the second booster dose of Covid-19. From this date, the forces and state security bodies, prisons and poultry or pig farmers are also vaccinated against influenza.
Until date, 888,953 doses were administered memory of Covid-19 and 1,175,517 doses of flu. 61.6 percent of the population over 80 received the second booster dose of Covid-19 and 66.5 percent were vaccinated against influenza. In the over 60 age group, 37.2 percent have been immunized against Covid-19 and 52 percent of those over 65 against the flu.
The general director of public health and pharmaceutical regulation, who was accompanied by the territorial delegate of 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 City of Córdoba and delegate for inclusion, accessibility and human resources, Bernardo Jordano.
In conclusion, the manager highlighted that “this pandemic, both at an intra-hospital and extra-hospital level, has enhanced the figure of the preventative doctor, a specialty which, until now, was not so well known to the general population, but this performs an essential job” .
Thus, Del Diego assured, “it happens to him as with vaccines: his success is his own death. When things work it seems like nothing is being done; however, they do tremendous work in all areas of infection prevention and control.”
