This was confirmed to Télam by sources from the Ministry of Health and they specified that as of Monday the distribution of the vaccines begins to the 24 Argentine jurisdictions that will be applied as of March 25.
The Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, revealed in the morning that “today 800,000 doses of influenza vaccines arrive to be distributed to the provinces” and indicated that this arrival occurs in the midst of “an unusual increase in influenza.”
“There is an increase in cases of flu, mainly in children, since in the previous two years the Covid totally displaced all other respiratory viruses, and now they are more susceptible to the influenza virus,” explained the official and epidemiologist in dialogue with meter radius.
Along the same lines, the infectious disease doctor Nathalia Katz, from the scientific area of the Directorate for the Control of Immunopreventable Diseases of the Ministry of Health, confirmed that “the flu vaccine will begin to be distributed next week to the 24 jurisdictions.”
During the talk he gave at the “SAVE the flu” meeting, organized by the Argentine Society of Vaccinology and Epidemiology (SAVE), Katz described that “once it arrives, each province has to distribute it to the different effectors.”
The decision to advance the vaccination campaign responds to an increase in cases of influenza that crosses the country caused by the influenza virus, mainly type A H3N2.
“In 2020 and 2021 there was almost no circulation of influenza, but at the end of 2021 cases began to increase again in the Northern Hemisphere and that began to have an impact on the Southern Hemisphere,” Elsa Baumeister also explained during the SAVE meeting. , head of the Respiratory Virus Service of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (INEI) of the ANLIS.
The specialist said that in Argentina the first detected cases of H3N2 were in Santa Fe during week 49 of 2021 — from December 5 to 11 –, and that from then on they began to increase.
“One of the most important focuses is in Salta, which entered through Bolivia and today has a very severe outbreak,” he explained.
Baumeister reported that these days “more than 370 cases per week are being diagnosed at the ANLIS-Malbrán, and so far we have 1,055 characterized (influenza) viruses.”
“Taking into account that the average before the pandemic was 4,000 to 5,000 per year, we are very surprised to have this figure at this time of year,” he said.
In addition, he considered that taking into account the variants that are circulating in the country, “the vaccines that will begin to be applied in the coming weeks would provide protection.”
This is an important piece of information since flu vaccines are updated year after year according to the type of virus circulating.
Regarding the advancement of the “flu season”, Baumeister indicated that “the influenza virus is unpredictable” but analyzed that “we have come from at least a year and a half in which we were very isolated, which led to low circulation viral”.
“On the other hand, the most affected are the youngest, those under five years old and especially two, who have practically had no contact with the virus, which generates a population that is very unprotected in terms of immunity,” he said. .
The specialist recalled that influenza A H3N2 is highly transmissible and the symptoms, which are fever, joint pain and sore throat, and are not always associated with congestion, begin very quickly once you have contact with the virus.
For his part, Katz recalled that the flu vaccine is included in the National Calendar for health personnel, girls and boys between 6 and 24 months, pregnant women in any month of gestation, postpartum women if they did not receive during pregnancy, people from 2 to 64 years with risk factors and older than 65 years.
The goal of these vaccines “is to reduce complications, hospitalizations, deaths and sequelae caused by the influenza virus,” he added.
In relation to the challenges of the flu vaccination campaign, the infectologist said that coverage in pregnant women and children needs to be improved. “Every contact with the health system has to serve to get vaccinated,” she synthesized.
On February 19, the Ministry of Health issued an alert due to the increase in cases of influenza, particularly H3N2
Two days ago, on March 16, the health portfolio updated the data and reported that “between weeks 1 and 8 (until February 22) of 2022, they were registered in the National Health Surveillance System (SNVS2.0) 794 cases of influenza, of which 389 have subtyping, being 385 influenza A H3N2 and 4 influenza A H1N1”.
In the document they pointed out that “in terms of distribution by age group, cases have been detected in all groups and the largest number was in children under 5 years of age followed by adults between 25-34 years of age.”
The jurisdictions in which the highest number of samples with positive results were recorded were the province of Buenos Aires, Salta, City of Buenos Aires, Tucumán, Santa Fe and Córdoba.
In this context, the Ministry recommended that health teams “suspect influenza and consider it in the differential diagnosis before the development of respiratory conditions, especially in high-risk groups for the development of serious conditions.”
While the general population was reminded that the same measures that serve to prevent Covid-19 (ventilation, use of masks and hand washing) are effective in protecting against other respiratory diseases.
Source: Telam
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