Santander BankAugust 31, 2023 -. Today, the ninth session on vaccine updates and new approaches begins. Changes to vaccination schedules two years after the COVID-19 pandemic are the framework for a summer course at the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP), which is being offered in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The event, which will run from Thursday to Friday tomorrow, will see experts address the apparent disruption of established vaccination programs, not only for children but also for adults, at the Magdalena Palace, which has contributed to the pandemic.
The Serious Danger of the Next Seasonal Flu
The director of the course, Raúl Ortiz de Lejarazu, scientific advisor and director emeritus of the National Influenza Centre, warned that due to the preventive approach we have There is an anomaly in contagion, which Ortiz warned at a news conference, along with David Moreno, a pediatrician and coordinator of Andalusia’s COVID-19 vaccination program, means a population-level Protection would be severely lost, “like a keg of gunpowder”. Ignacio Salamanca, vaccine consultant at the Spanish Pediatric Association (CAV-AEP) and research coordinator at the Pediatric Institute of Seville.
First flu vaccination campaign for minors
Three experts have warned of the danger, advising parents of children aged three months to five to take advantage of what Dr Ignacio Salamanca called “one of the most important public health measures we are taking going forward”. . Take”: The recommendation, funded by the Ministry of Health, will be implemented for the first time in all autonomous regions to vaccinate minors against influenza. “Children are the group most affected by influenza,” says the pediatrician. Influenza is not an adult disease. Also, we know that if we protect children, we can also avoid transmission to the general population.”
Conference Director Raúl Ortiz de Lejarazu emphasized that “unlike the new coronavirus, influenza kills healthy children”, that is, minors do not need to have any previous pathological symptoms for their condition to worsen and may die from this disease. kind of infection. “In any seasonal influenza epidemic, this ratio is stubborn: there are always three times as many young people under the age of twelve who are infected as those over the age of 65. In other words, while 30% of the child population is infected , but only 10% of the adult population aged 18 and over are infected. If we analyze in detail, people over 65 are the least infected, but the problem is that for many of them, the virus they contract It was the last to get infected,” Ortiz said forcefully.
COVID-19 Vaccination
“This winter, people under the age of 60 will only be vaccinated against the new crown for people with chronic diseases. Especially for children, only those who have many problems from an immune point of view, such as children undergoing chemotherapy for cancer or congenital immunodeficiency From now on, there will be very, very few cases of children being vaccinated against COVID-19”, explains pediatrician David Moreno.
The director of the UIMP vaccination conference strongly stated that the new crown virus is “as all virologists have said from the beginning”, and we cannot predict what will happen in a few years. “Eradicating a virus is difficult, and three things need to be done well. First, it is a virus whose host is limited to humans, that is, it does not exist in animals, such as influenza or coronavirus; second, the vaccines we have Not against disease or death, but against the infection itself, and this vaccine can last; third, global vaccination”, explains Raúl Ortiz de Lejarazu.
“The only way this virus can end is if it goes into what we call the Muller’s ratchet, where it mutates so much and to such an extent that it compromises the virus’s own infectivity and reproducibility and is not reproducible. Reproducibility. Sufficient recovery rate. How to make Flashback behind. This happened, for example, with SARS-CoV-1 14 years ago, the virus was massively infected after two days, so there was no silent infection. So once we start isolating cases, the virus is over,” concluded the virologist.