The director of the vaccination plan in Andalusia of the Ministry of Health and Consumption of the Andalusian Government, David Moreno, has confirmed that the regional Administration is maintaining vaccination against Covid this year for the elderly and patients with chronic diseases. “We are going to be vaccinating” vulnerable people, the elderly, patients with pathologies and those who have chronic diseases “for at least several years.”
This was explained by Moreno in an interview on Canal Sur Radio reported by Europa Press on the occasion of the start of the immunisation campaign against the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) this Monday. RSV is the main cause of bronchiolitis in infants, which leads to numerous visits to Emergency and Primary Care, as well as hospital admissions every year.
“This vaccine is vital to contain the disease,” said the director of the Andalusian vaccination plan, who also defended the novelty this year of vaccinating children under 3 and 4 years of age in schools because it is “a fantastic opportunity to get many children vaccinated early against the flu, before the epidemic arrives and they begin to infect older children.” In this campaign, it is expected to immunize between 55,000 and 60,000 children, according to the Junta’s calculations. These children will receive the medicine at their health centre starting this Monday. For the 2024/2025 campaign, 73,000 doses have been purchased with a budget of 15.8 million euros. Likewise, these doses will be administered to all infants born from this Monday until March 31, 2025, in the delivery room or on the maternity ward before they are discharged.
In addition, it will be administered to infants under one year of age with a history of prematurity of less than 35 weeks, as well as to other infants with very high-risk chronic pathologies who are up to 24 months old. This immunization effectively and safely prevents infection by this virus, a respiratory condition that occurs, above all, during autumn and winter.
In this regard, the Ministry of Health has recommended that all parents with children under six months of age accept the invitation to be immunised against RSV. This is the second time that Andalusia has carried out an immunisation campaign against RSV. In 2023-2024, more than 93% of all children born between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 received the medicine. Those who received the vaccine had 80% fewer hospital admissions for RSV bronchiolitis than those who did not receive it, and it is estimated that around 2,000 hospitalisations for bronchiolitis in children under six months of age were avoided in Andalusia thanks to this immunisation campaign.
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