The High Authority for Health believes that this vaccine should be included in the vaccination schedule and made free. She advises to favor its administration in the form of a nasal spray.
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The French health authorities recommended, Thursday, February 9, to vaccinate all children over 2 years against seasonal flu. The High Authority for Health (HAS) wants this vaccination “be integrated into the vaccination schedule to be offered each year to children without comorbidities aged 2 to 17 years old”she announced in a press release. The HAS also recommends full reimbursement of this vaccine for children. However, it would not become mandatory.
The opinion of the HAS is only advisory, but the Ministry of Health tends to systematically follow its positions. His position thus paves the way for a massive vaccination campaign against the flu of children from the end of 2023.
Until now, flu vaccines were recommended for people over 65 and people at risk, such as asthmatics or patients with certain heart conditions. It was only recommended for children with these comorbidities.
“Limit the spread” of the virus
The HAS specifies that the five existing vaccines can be used, but the authority has expressed a preference for the one administered by nasal spray. Developed by AstraZeneca, but today little given, it is considered more acceptable than a sting for children and parents.
The health authorities justify this recommendation by the collective benefit of the vaccination of children for “limit the spread and impact of influenza on the population”. Several countries, including the United Kingdom and Spain, have already made this choice, above all in the idea that children constitute an important breeding ground for the transmission of the virus, in particular among older relatives.
However, HAS is careful to emphasize that the individual benefit is not non-existent for children. After examining several recent large-scale studies, she concludes that existing vaccines are effective and well tolerated in children over 2 years of age. She also reminds that people under 15 have accounted for a lot of flu-related hospitalizations in recent epidemics, with the elderly being widely vaccinated.
The HAS does not recommend the vaccine below 2 years of age: it considers that there is a lack of data on the effectiveness for these toddlers, but it also recognizes that such a measure “raises questions of acceptability”.
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