Health authorities encourage Rioja families to get flu shots for children 6 months to 5 years old – Logroño

The Minister of Health and Social Policy, María Martín, visited the Villamediana de Iregua Medical Clinic on Wednesday to “encourage Rioja families to vaccinate children between 6 months and 5 years old against the flu.”

in this regard, ha Adhere to “prevention first, care for health”. Martin explained that the vaccine is being used on healthy children in this age group for the first time, which is an innovation because previously only children with underlying medical conditions were vaccinated.

Flu is not a minor illness and vaccinating children is key to avoiding complications such as hospital admission.

Actually, Influenza affects 20% to 40% of children, depending on the extent of the epidemic that year, with 5% of cases ending in hospitalization due to severity.

The adviser wanted to thank nursing professionals for their role “who ensure, year after year, that we have the best ratios in the national system.”

A total of 1.6 million children will benefit from Spain’s flu vaccination this year, which includes intranasal vaccination for children aged 2 to 5 years or intramuscular vaccination for the youngest children (6 to 23 months).

On October 2, La Rioja began a combined influenza and COVID-19 vaccination campaign in nursing homes. Likewise, the campaign continues during the week of October 9 among senior citizens aged over 85 years and among health and social health professionals of the Rioja Health Service. Starting from last Monday (16th), the remaining target groups began to be vaccinated.

To avoid waiting and get vaccinated efficiently, people can book appointments for these vaccines at their respective health centres.