The XIII Conference on Vaccines of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics begins
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Luis Blesa, president of the AEP and pediatrician at the Serrería II Health Center in Valencia, has defended the creation of a National Immunization Committee. He has done it during XIII Conference on Vaccines of the Spanish Association of Pediatricswhich are being held for the first time in their history in a mixed format, face-to-face and online, on April 1 and 2 at the León Exhibition and Conference Center.
As he explained, the importance of this annual congress is given by the “exponential” progress in the creation of new vaccines. Also due to the need to find a balance between those that are finally managed. And for having controlled the changes in the epidemiological patterns in the infections against which these vaccines fight.
All these are reasons why the AEP urges the “creation of a National Immunization Committee“. In it they would participate, “in addition to technicians of Public Health, the Ministry of Health and the different CC. AA., a representation of scientific societies and patients. Also, with voice but without vote, the companies or entities that manufacture the vaccines “.
“This is what the World Health Organization recommends and what many countries around us have. A large committee would achieve greater social support in the decisions made about vaccines,” he stated.
Differences between autonomous communities
“The Spanish Association of Paediatrics has to defend a vaccination schedule that is dynamic, flexible and up-to-date. At the same time, he defends that it be unique, homogeneous and maximum throughout the country. There is not enough justification from the epidemiological point of view for there to be differences between autonomous communities. That can create some unnecessary confusion in the population,” he added.
He has also spoken about these differences Francis Alvarez, coordinator of the AEP Vaccine Advisory Committee and pediatrician at the Llanera Health Center in Asturias. For example, in the case of coverage with the COVID-19 vaccine in children, they are seeing very different rates that have not yet been explained. In this sense, paediatricians have emphasized the importance they have when advising and advising parents, who may feel fear or underestimate the risks due to the latest messages that are reaching them.
Low immunity in children
Because while in the population over 12 years of age, the percentage of vaccination amounts to 92%, in children from 6 to 11 years of age, only 50% have one dose administered and only 30% have both doses. “Children are rarely vaccinated and we cannot trust each other; COVID is still present and continues to cause hospitalizations and mortality”, highlighted the coordinator of the CAV-AEP.
Likewise, Álvarez has pointed out that “any expenditure on vaccines is not a cost, but an investment.” “It’s always cost-effective, but only 0.3% of the total pharmacy budget of the Autonomous Communities is allocated. It has to be more”, she assured.
Among the vaccines that are on the calendars, he has also denounced that while all the political parties carry “equality as a flag, it seems unbelievable that since 2007 the HPV vaccine is administered in women but not in men”. All this when, as he has indicated, it also has an influence on cancers that affect men.
flu shots
this edition It also has the presence of leading international experts, such as Dr. Adolfo Garcia Tailordirector of the Institute for Global Health and Emerging Pathogens at the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai in New York (USA), who has been working for years in a universal flu vaccine that provides protection against different strains of the virus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that annual influenza epidemics cause around one billion infections, three to five million cases of severe illness, and between 300,000 and 500,000 deaths worldwide. And that when the flu is an infection for which there is a vaccine.
The development of new vaccines against the influenza virus, which causes the flu, is one of the star issues, as pointed out by Maria Jose Cillerueloco-director of the XIII Conference on Vaccines of the AEP and member of the Pediatric service of the Puerta de Hierro University Hospital in Madrid.
García Sastre, who has also participated in the presentation, has assured that “we need to have better measures to reduce the number of deaths and hospitalizations in influenza“. Because, although it does not have the same mortality rate as COVID-19, there are still many people who die each year.
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