XI Infectolóxico Interactive Workshop (Tipico) Highlights Galicia’s Pioneering Vaccination Strategy

The Minister of Health inaugurates the XI Tipico, a congress in Santiago on infectious diseases that highlights Galicia as a “pioneer” in vaccination

More than 40,000 Galicians between 65 and 79 years of age agreed, for now, to participate in the ‘Galflu’ clinical trial, an initiative of the Galician Health Service (Sergas) and the Santiago Health Research Institute (IDIS) to evaluate what response offers the boosted flu vaccine in this age group.

This is the figure given by Dr. Federico Martinón, director of the project and the Genvip research group (Genetics, Vaccines, Infections and Pediatrics), during the inauguration this Thursday of the XI Infectolóxico Interactive Workshop (Tipico) held in the Galician capital until Friday with hundreds of international experts.

Martinón has highlighted Galicia as a “pioneer” community in vaccination and has referred, as an example of this, to that ‘Galflu’ project, which is being developed in parallel to the flu-covid double vaccination campaign in large venues.

The initiative started on October 26, coinciding with the reopening of the ‘vaccination centers’ in Galicia. The objective is that, of the 450,000 Galicians between 65 and 79 years old who are being summoned, at least 50,000 voluntarily agree to receive that reinforced dose against the flu that is already given to those over 80 to study if it produces the same response. immune at younger ages.

As of Wednesday of this week, November 16, more than 40,000 patients have done so: half have received the normal dose and the other half have received the double dose. Those responsible for the project hope to reach that goal of 50,000 before the end of the year.

“We trust that the results will be interesting, especially for the scientific community,” highlighted, for his part, the Minister of Health, Julio García Comesaña, who also participated in the inauguration of the Tipico in the Faculty assembly hall. of Medicine of Santiago.

MORE THAN 400 INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS

This is the 11th edition of this annual event coordinated, precisely, by Federico Martinón and which brings together more than 400 national and international experts this week in the Galician capital to discuss vaccines and infectious diseases. The opening ceremony was also attended by the manager of the Santiago-Barbanza Health Area, Eloína Núñez, and the vice-rector of Scientific Policy of the Compostela university, Pilar Bermejo.

Among the attending specialists, the pediatrician from the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) Louis Bont will speak about their work these days, along with his colleague at the University of St. Jude (United States) Octavio Ramilo, to present the latest results at the fights against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the main cause of respiratory diseases in children.

In this sense, during the inauguration, Martinón mentioned Galicia as a “pioneer” community after introducing this virus vaccine into its vaccination schedule not only in neonates, but also in pregnant women.

The Tipico coordinator has insisted that the Galician Community is, surely, “the place in the world with the most complete and advanced vaccination schedule” and the one with the greatest population adherence to immunization campaigns.

According to Martinón, all this is due to the “decided commitment of the Ministry of Health and its General Directorate of Public Health.” However, he has called for continued progress both in the vaccination schedule and in the incorporation of researchers: “Investing in vaccines is investing in the future of a population. But it is not enough to say it but to do it. And here (in Galicia) being done”.

For his part, the Health Minister highlighted during his speech the recent introduction of new vaccines to the Galician calendar, such as herpes zoster, meningitis B “and those that we will gradually incorporate.” Thus, he has highlighted that in the Xunta’s budgets for 2024 there will be an allocation of almost 40 million euros for vaccines, double that of 2021.

In this opening ceremony, the participants took the opportunity to congratulate Federico Martinón, who is also head of the Pediatrics service at the Hospital Clínico de Santiago, for his recent award as the most prestigious pediatrician in Spain at the Merco-Observatorio de Salud Awards gala. , held on Monday in Madrid.

There has also been no shortage of encouragement for all the health workers attending the XI Tipico to enjoy Compostela and its gastronomy.

2023-11-16 18:02:39
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