“We must protect children from the flu virus”

31.08.23 Santander uimp IX update meeting and new approaches to vaccines. Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination schedules have changed. Ignacio Salamanca, coordinator of the Research Center of the Pediatric Institute of Seville; the people in the center are the Curriculum Director Raúl Ortiz de Lejarazu, the Scientific Consultant and director emeritus; the third is David Moreno, pediatrician, coordinator of the COVID-19 vaccine project in Andalusia and vaccine consultant of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (CAV-AEP) Photo: Juanma Serrano

Raúl Ortiz de Lejarazu, Director Emeritus of the National Influenza Center (Valladolid); David Moreno, Director of the Andalusian Strategic Vaccination Program; Ignacio Salamanca reviewed within the framework of the ninth Vaccine Updates and New Approaches Conference held these days in Andalusia. The International University of Menendez Pelayo (UIMP) emphasizes the importance of protecting the pediatric population from influenza virus infection. The next event will be the first in which all of Spain’s autonomous communities will contribute to the vaccine.

Conference President Ortiz de Lejarazu recalled in an interview with the media, “Unlike the coronavirus, the flu kills healthy children; luckily very few, but that’s what they are. The reason for the need for a vaccine; the World Health Organization made this recommendation in 2011.”

He also recalled that this year the World Health Organization has identified the vaccination of health professionals as a priority goal. They have to set an example, “the opposite is equivalent to saying ‘do as I say, not as I do'”, explains the course director.

With regard to vaccination against SARS-CoV-2, experts recall that it will target populations because in countries with better resources, 75% to 80% of the population is already immune to vaccination and exposure to the pathogen.

Ortiz de Lejarazu avoided giving a trade name but declared himself in favor of a newer vaccine against the latest variant of the virus, which would exclude the Spanish vaccine from the recommendation.

Ignacio Salamanca stresses the need to educate professionals and society as a whole about the risks of influenza: “When parents do not know the risk, neither they nor professionals are under pressure to get vaccinated.” It also announced , the recommendations for childhood flu vaccinations apply to all children over the age of five, although this time the group is for children 6 to 59 months old.

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