“We must adopt strategies that maximize the protection of children,” said Jaime Jesús Pérez, AEV President and member of the vaccine conference. This year, in addition to nirsevimab, he launched another important innovation in the vaccination strategy. .: Children six months to five years old may also get the flu vaccine.
“In children, we don’t take influenza too seriously because we seem to be used to it in our families. But if we analyze the data, we see that this is a disease that affects children significantly. Before COVID-19, In three of the seven seasons, more people under five were hospitalized with influenza than people over 65,” the expert stressed.
Until now, the childhood flu vaccine was only available to children with pre-existing medical conditions. Now everyone can use it. “This fact is very important because 70 percent of children admitted to the hospital with influenza do not have any risk factors,” Perez said, recalling that the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recommended it.
All communities and municipalities in Ceuta and Melilla have purchased the vaccine, which will reach 1.6 million children who will receive one of two vaccines according to their age. Children aged 2 to 5 years will receive the intranasal vaccine, and children as young as 6 to 23 months will receive the intramuscular vaccine.
In documents approved by the Public Health Commission last week, experts recommended that children receive a single dose of the vaccine as well as those vaccinated for the first time, with the exception of those at risk, who will receive at least two doses of the compound during the first vaccination season The interval is four weeks.