February 09, 2023
In order to limit the spread and impact of seasonal flu, the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) recommends that vaccination be offered each year to children without comorbidities aged 2 to 17 years old. Without making it mandatory.
Each year in France, the seasonal flu affects two to six million people. It is responsible for an average of around 9,000 deaths. This is why vaccination is recommended for people at risk (over 65 or with comorbidities).
But we know, the children are real tanks for the virus flu. This is why the HAS was seized in January 2022 in order to assess an extension of this vaccination to children and adolescents with no comorbidities. As is already the case, for example, in the United Kingdom, Spain and Austria.
Recommendation, not obligation
In view of the good tolerance and efficacy of the vaccines on the pediatric population, the HAS has, on February 9, “recommended that vaccination once morest seasonal influenza be integrated into the vaccination schedule to be offered each year to children without comorbidities aged 2 to 17 years old, without making it compulsory. »
Although each of the five vaccines present on the market can be used, the Autorité expresses a preference for the intranasal route, which is simpler to use and better accepted by children and their parents.
Finally, for the HAS, the implementation of this recommendation offers multiple benefits: individual first, to protect once morest the consequences of the disease, since children under 15 are overrepresented among the cases of flu-like syndrome seen in consultation of town medicine.
And a collective benefit since this vaccination in children aged 2 to 17 would limit the spread of the disease within the general population and the elderly in particular.
