The flu vaccine is being extended this autumn, for the first time in all of Spain, to healthy children between 6 months and 5 years of age, whereas previously only the infant population with underlying diseases were vaccinated exclusively.
All the communities and autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla have already acquired the doses for this year’s flu vaccination, which will benefit 1.6 million children, either the intranasal vaccine for those between 2 and 5 years of age or the intramuscular one for the smallest (from 6 to 23 months), explains a member of the Vaccine Advisory Committee of the Spanish Association of Paediatrics (CAV-AEV), Javier Álvarez.
Last year, flu vaccination in this cohort of the child population was carried out only in three autonomous communities: Andalusia, Galicia and Murcia, with “magnificent” results and coverage of 50%, says this expert, who aspires to achieve in autumn coverage in Spain from 55 to 60% on average.
Although this coverage seems modest, it is very important since significant impacts are achieved “and the virus stops circulating or does so in less quantity, so not only those vaccinated but also the people around them benefit,” he points out.
Álvarez specifies that the administration of this vaccine to healthy children is done “to protect those vaccinated, but also because they are the main transmitters of the flu, mainly in schools and day care centres, and they spread the virus to the people they live with.”
This expert acknowledges that on the subject of flu “it has taken a long time for the population to become aware that it is not a trivial disease” and it is not exempt from complications, especially in children: “The flu must be taken seriously “he warns.
In fact, the flu affects between 20 and 40% of the child population depending on the extent of the epidemic that year, and 5% of cases end up in hospitalisation due to its severity.
Two thirds of those children who are hospitalised are healthy, that is, they do not have an underlying disease, so it is recommended “to vaccinate everyone, vaccinating is always a value,” he reiterates.
Thus, this autumn the flu vaccine, which is already on the schedule of the National Health System, will be administered to this cohort and to children with underlying disease, whatever their age.
The member of the Permanent Group for Europe of the WHO and honorary member of the Spanish Association of Vaccination (AEV), Amós García Rojas, has also spoken on this matter, who appreciates that this year the flu vaccine will include the child population healthy because of “its important role in the spread of disease”.
In statements, García Rojas insisted that in countries where healthy children are already vaccinated “a marked decrease in cases of influenza in adults is observed.”
Also this autumn, the vaccination campaign against covid will be resumed with new serums, an intervention that, in the opinion of García Rojas, “will remain stable in the coming years” although only for the population at risk, on an annual basis and administered simultaneously with the flu vaccine.
“Covid has come to stay, it will not be diluted or faded, it will continue with us and that implies that there will be some profiles in the population with a clear risk who will be given a booster dose,” says the former president of the AEV.
New vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax adapted to Covid-19 variants will be administered this year. The groups called to receive this covid vaccine will be older, patients with risk pathologies, immunosuppressed, pregnant women, and healthcare workers.
Pfizer report that since most flu vaccines are distributed at the end of September and administered in October, “the goal is to have the updated Omicron XBB.1.5-adapted vaccine available at the same time.”
On behalf of Moderna, they guarantee that their updated vaccine “has shown a significant increase in the neutralisation of antibodies against the EG.5, FL 1.5.1 strains”, and the XBB variant”, and “it will be ready for the autumn vaccination with a sufficient world supply”.
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