Three-year-old Pedro didn’t quite understand what was causing such a commotion in his classroom at San Felix de Sarandona school on Wednesday. Surrounded by a crowd of photographers and cameras, health workers in white coats, two gentlemen in suits – the Minister of Health and the Minister of Education – and other government officials, the student symbolically launched a new campaign at the school. influenza vaccination campaign targeting 30,000 children. 3- and 4-year-old children who attend school in the area. He neither cried in front of so many strangers nor when an experienced nurse at the Zalandona Health Center administered the vaccine intranasally. “What does it smell like, strawberries or lemons?” they asked him. Pedro didn’t really know what to say, he was just happy to be back with his friends and walk away.
The vaccine was administered on Tuesday in some education centers in Region Seven, but it was not until Wednesday that the campaign fully began in the Murcia region. The health department has opted to vaccinate children aged three and four against influenza in schools after a pilot conducted at 24 centers last season showed good results. “The coverage is 20 or 25 percent higher than in health centers,” emphasizes Matilde Zornoza, a pediatrician at the Ministry of Health’s vaccination program.
This Wednesday’s balance at St Felix’s School confirmed the success of this strategy, although it also showed there is still work to be done to convince many parents. Forty-four children were vaccinated, representing more than 50 percent of the 3- and 4-year-old students. Last season, coverage in these age groups ranged from 43% to 47%.
Health Secretary Juan José Pedreño highlighted the region’s “pioneering” commitment to school vaccinations, which avoids “parents’ travel,” and the fact that the intranasal vaccine is “easy to administer and safe.” » . “The vaccine has shown that it protects and manages to reduce complicated cases and hospitalizations,” he noted. He explained that about 150 children enter the region with influenza every year (out of about 5,000 children in all of Spain). But most importantly, childhood influenza saturates primary care (generating approximately 58,000 consultations per year nationally). In addition, young children become spreaders: they bring the virus home and infect their grandparents and other vulnerable populations.
This message resonates with more than half of the parents of children at St. Felix Children’s Hospital. “The response from these families has been very positive and most of them agreed to be vaccinated,” explains José Alfonso Madrid, director of the center. School nurse Irina Rosa Salazar and her Colleagues at the health center administered the vaccine “like a game” to the children after showing them an animated video that helped allay fears.
Children under 3 years of age at health centers
As in the previous season, childhood flu vaccinations will be targeted at children under 3 years of age and will be administered at health centers starting in October. Children 2 years of age will receive the intranasal vaccine, while children 6 months to 2 years of age will be protected intramuscularly via a typical puncture, as intranasal vaccines are not indicated at such a young age.
Although a date has not yet been set, people over 60, healthcare workers, essential workers, pregnant women and patients with high-risk medical conditions will also start receiving coronavirus and flu vaccines at the same time in October. The first to be protected are senior citizens over the age of 80 and residential users. Health will use the new Pfizer vaccine adapted to the Ómicron subvariant.