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bronchiolitis

High Vaccination Rate Against RSV in Andalusian Children, Says Health Minister

by Chief editor of world-today-news.com October 14, 2023

written by Chief editor of world-today-news.com

The Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs of the Government of Andalusia, Catalina Garciahas shown its satisfaction with the good response shown by the parents of the Andalusian child population since more than 28% of the children have already vaccinated against him respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

This virus causes infection in the respiratory tract such as bronchiolitis o pneumonia. It’s been just over a week since they started getting vaccinated and there are now a total of 18,151 minors vaccinated in this period. On the other hand, a 58,8% of minors born since April 1 have also received the corresponding dose of this vaccine.

Some figures that the counselor highlighted: “They represent a milestone in terms of prevention in Andalusia.” She did it in day of the I Andalusian Forum on Immunoprevention of Respiratory Infections which was held in Sevilla and which was also attended by the Deputy Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs, Miguel Angel Guzmanand the general director of Public Health and Pharmaceutical Regulation, Jorge del Diegoamong other authorities.

Last year, infections from this virus kept 301 minors hospitalized in Andalusia at the same time (during the highest peak that occurred in November). And, in total, according to records from the Andalusian Health Service, 2,581 children under one year of age required hospital admission in 2022 due to RSV.

Bronchiolitis campaign 2023-2024

The Andalusian minors have a game of 63,600 doses for the campaign 2023-2024 and for which a budget of 13.8 million euros.

The doses have been distributed since September 25 and have begun for children born since October 1, 2023 and those born in subsequent periods until March 31, 2024, as well as all infants born between April and September 30, 2023.

Children under one year old who were born with less than 35 weeks are also receiving the first doses, as well as other infants with chronic very high risk that are up to 24 months old.

From the Ministry of Health, they assure that the vaccine It is an “effective and safe” way of prevent virus infection bronchiolitisa respiratory pathology that has its highest peak incidence during autumn and winter.

Vaccine doses by provinces

By provinces, the estimated doses for each one are Almería, 7,435; Cadiz, 8,691; Córdoba, 5,417; Granada, 7,943; Huelva, 4,141; Jaén, 4,814; Malaga, 11,819, and Sevilla, 13.341. Andalusia is administering for the first time the monoclonal antibody against RSV – called Nirsevimab, with the commercial name Beyfortus. In this way, the autonomous community continues to focus on health prevention, with one of the vaccination schedules further advanced of the national territory.

On the other hand, the General Directorate of Public Health and Pharmaceutical Regulation has incorporated RSV into the Acute Respiratory Infection Sentinel Surveillance Protocol, both in Primary and Hospital Care, thus joining the joint Covid19/Flu surveillance strategy that was established for the 2020-2021 season.

2023-10-14 05:00:00
#Andalusian #children #vaccinated #bronchiolitis

October 14, 2023 0 comments

Health

Flu vs COVID: Why Vaccinating Children is Crucial

by Chief editor of world-today-news.com October 2, 2023

written by Chief editor of world-today-news.com

«More children die from flu than from covid. Vaccinating them is important »Fernando Bustamante

It’s one of the Most reputable virologists and vaccine researchers on an international level. Alfredo García Sastre (Burgos, 1964) was in Valencia a few days ago at the ninth summit of the European Influenza Working Group (ESWI), a meeting at the highest level to debate this virus, but also other respiratory viruses such as syncytial (RSV) or SARS-CoV-2 and advances in immunization.

What can we expect from SARS-CoV-2 after three years of coexistence?

It is going to become another respiratory virus. It is a matter of seeing how much disease it generates compared to the other two big ones, RSV (the cause of bronchiolitis) and the flu because it is still not clear if it will be the same as the flu or worse. Certainly not much worse. The amount of severe disease that the virus causes in the presence of a population that has already been immunologically exposed is much less than what it caused at the beginning. Most people are immunized with a vaccine and with infection and that immunity, although the new variants are capable of overcoming it, do not do so enough to be able to generate a lot of serious illness. And in those who are not vaccinated or who have not seen the virus, newborns, since we already know that the amount of severe disease is very small.

Is a great evolutionary leap of the virus to be expected?

It is not expected, but it can never be said with complete certainty that it cannot happen. That’s the problem there is. But it can also happen with the flu, right? And with any other virus. It is not expected because it is not selectable. Viruses adapt to be able to reproduce as best they can and to do so they have to be transmitted. For a respiratory virus to be transmitted, it must do so from secretions that come mainly from the upper respiratory tract. And if the disease is caused in the lower respiratory tract or if it goes to the brain, it cannot be transmitted from there.

What virus will generate the next pandemic?

We are once again targeting bird flu, what we were before. I still think there is going to be a flu pandemic. But we have been wrong twice already so it is very difficult to predict. The 2009 pandemic was an H1 and no one thought it would be an H1. The H5 have a lot of risk because there is a lot of variability and a lot of viruses circulating right now in animals, that’s why they have more risk, but it could be any other subtype.

What flu season will we have?

Normally the peak is in February, but now that there is one more virus circulating, things are also more complicated. We will see if the peak (of covid) will coincide with the flu peak or not and if annual vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 will also be needed. If they were coincident, both vaccines could be given at the same time, but how are they combined? Because flu vaccines are not RNA but those most used for coronaviruses are.

“We once again point to avian flu (as the generator of another pandemic) but we have already been wrong twice.”

Adolfo García Sastre

This is the date on which the flu-covid vaccination will begin in C.Valenciana

Now they are given at the same time but they are two different vaccines. Is the future a single vaccine?

In the same syringe. If in the end the annual covid vaccine is done, it would be what one would want. It is easier. It depends on whether the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is done annually or not and the type of vaccine platforms that continue to be used. Because the coronavirus vaccine, although it does not give rise to severe adverse effects, does have effects and if it is added to the flu vaccine, there may be people who do not want to take it simply because they will not have a fever one day. Improved vaccines may appear in the future. And if these improved vaccines are needed annually and can be given together with the flu, it would be a matter of trying to combine them, like the pediatric ones.

Is it already being considered?

We have debated it here, as well as the improvements that can be made in the covid vaccine because it has been very good but the ones that exist are not entirely optimal. One for reactogenicity: if they resulted in fewer side effects it would be better. Also because of the duration of immunity because it is not very long. Even if the virus did not change, surely they would still have to be used on an annual basis and the third is to avoid not only severe illness, but also infection and transmission. That would be the ideal.

Health prepares its largest flu vaccination campaign by including 200,000 “healthy” children

Adolfo García Tailor, in Valencia.

This year is the first that children will be vaccinated against the flu. What can you expect?

The main consequence is the decrease in circulation (of the virus), because it is very clear that those who really carry the flu infection are children. They get infected more easily, they have milder symptoms but they transmit the virus very well to their parents, their grandparents… and that is why it often coincides with the start of the school calendar with the start of the flu and then after Christmas When they return to school, the peak occurs. And if children are vaccinated, that peak could be reduced.

Convincing parents just thinking about avoiding transmission is difficult…

Vaccines need to provide a personal benefit to those who use them, not just a social benefit, and luckily, there is one. There are not many children who have severe flu illness, but right now there are more children dying from the flu than from covid. In the United States there is a non-profit association of parents who have lost a son or daughter due to the flu. They try to raise awareness among the population that your children can die from the flu, as has happened to them, and that, therefore, vaccination is very important. Also, the intranasal one, children take it very well, there is no needle.

It is also the first year that all infants are given the “vaccine” for bronchiolitis. Could it be a change of scenery?

Improved antibodies have been achieved, although it has taken a long time, that are also capable of being used at different ages and not only in premature babies. But yes, it can be a change of scenery. The only thing is that it is still an expensive therapy. It saves lives but is very difficult to implement in poorer countries.

2023-10-02 05:00:20
#children #die #flu #covid #Vaccinating #important

October 2, 2023 0 comments

Health

New Vaccine to Prevent Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Children: Details and Administration Campaign

by Chief editor of world-today-news.com September 28, 2023

written by Chief editor of world-today-news.com

You may not be familiar with what respiratory syncytial virus is, but 90 percent of children suffer from it. The symptoms may seem like a cold, but in some cases, especially in the first months of a baby, it can lead to pneumonia or bronchiolitis. Surely that name sounds more familiar to you because your own son may have suffered from it or know of a similar case. Now there is a new vaccine that prevents the serious consequences of this virus and will prevent 80 percent of the hospitalizations that have occurred until now. Starting this Sunday it will begin to be administered among the smallest in the region.

The general director of Public Health, Laura Ortiz, and the general director of Care and Quality of Sescam, Montserrat Hernández, have today given the details of what this campaign will be like, which will be the first time it has been done in Castilla-La Mancha. To date, only children with higher risks were vaccinated and with a product that was less effective and also required more doses. Nirsevimab will now be used, which only requires one dose and is not actually a vaccine as such. “It is a medicine, not a vaccine itself, we already provide the defenses, we give an antibody,” explains Laura Ortiz, “we are talking about immunization.”

This ‘vaccine’ will be administered to four population groups. Children who are less than six months old will be vaccinated, that is, all those born on or after April 1. Newborns will also be vaccinated from October 1 to March 31. The third vaccination group will be children who are less than one year old, but who were premature, born before 35 weeks, as they are more vulnerable. The fourth group is made up of children under two years of age with risk factors for lung problems, congenital heart disease or Down syndrome. In almost all cases the vaccine will be administered at the Primary Care health center, except for newborns, who will be administered at the hospital.

Sescam will apply the “active capture” modality for this campaign. That is, it will be the health professionals who will call the families and schedule them, since the vaccine can be made to coincide with the periodic check-ups that babies have to do in the first months of life. “Health professionals are very used to launching vaccination campaigns,” said Hernández.

Laura Ortiz specified that the budget for this campaign will be around 3.2 million euros. It must be remembered that the total amount of vaccines allocated this year by Sescam reaches 30 million. The target population will be around 14,000 children. The campaign is carried out in these fall and winter months because that is when this respiratory virus has the greatest incidence.

Montserrat Hernández clarified that “the reactions of these vaccines are local and in very few cases.” It is estimated that only in 0.7% of cases do local reactions occur, which may be a small rash, which would appear between seven and fourteen days after the injection. Furthermore, like any respiratory virus, it calls on the population to make use of everything that was learned with the coronavirus: “Wash our hands, try to put our elbow when coughing, clean children’s toys.”

2023-09-28 10:58:33
#Sescam #call #schedule #parents #bronchiolitis #vaccine

September 28, 2023 0 comments

Health

Ministry of Health Administers Bronchiolitis Immunization to Newborns | Flu Vaccine for Schoolchildren | COVID Vaccination Campaign

by Chief editor of world-today-news.com September 25, 2023

written by Chief editor of world-today-news.com

The Ministry of Health begins today to protect newborns against bronchiolitis. The Region thus becomes one of the few autonomous communities to administer this immunization in September. Minors will be able to receive the antibody that protects them against bronchiolitis in the hospital at the time of their birth in all maternity hospitals, both public and private, starting today.

Throughout this week, parents of children born on or after April 1 of this year have also been notified by telephone and SMS to go to their health center to administer this protection.

On the other hand, three and four year old children in the Region will receive the flu vaccine this year in their schools, in order to make it easier for families to get immunized. It will start on Wednesday and it is estimated that there will be about 30,000 schoolchildren. The Minister of Health, Juan José Pedreño, explained that “convenience in administration improves access to vaccines and reduces the population’s reluctance. For this reason, we have considered that, given that the parents of three- and four-year-old children are mostly workers and may have difficulty going to the health center or regular vaccination post, the option of administering the vaccine in schools is optimal.

Vaccination of three- and four-year-old children (first and second years of Early Childhood Education) will be carried out with the intranasal vaccine, which is much more convenient, since the puncture is avoided. The vaccine service has written to parents to inform them and to record their consent. Last year, two, three and four-year-old schoolchildren were vaccinated against the flu at their health centers.

The beginning of the covid vaccination campaign is subject to the arrival of doses from the Ministry of Health and will begin with those over 80 years of age and priority groups (healthcare personnel, pregnant women and immunosuppressed people).

2023-09-24 22:05:17
#Newborn #Bronchiolitis #Vaccine #Starts #Administration #Today

September 25, 2023 0 comments

Health

New Immunization for Children Under Six Months of Age Against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)

by Chief editor of world-today-news.com September 24, 2023

written by Chief editor of world-today-news.com

For the first time, Andalusia incorporates immunization for children under six months of age against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the cause of bronchiolitis, into the vaccination schedule. The doses are already in the health centers and hospitals of the different provinces, in the case of Córdoba, and according to the data provided by the Health Department of the Board to The dayThey are some 5,417 doses those that will be administered starting this Monday.

To this end, groups have been established that include the children born on or after April 1, 2023, up to those born on March 31, 2024, those under one year of age with a history of being born before 35 weeks, and those under two years of age at risk of severe bronchiolitis and high-risk conditions such as congenital heart disease. Children over two years of age belonging to risk groups will be immunized at the Reina Sofía Hospital, in the Preventive Medicine Service, while other groups, including children under two years of age with Down Syndrome, will do so through Primary Care. in health centers.

Las 63,600 doses in Andalusia They will be distributed in 13,341 for Seville, 11,819 for the children of Málaga, 8,691 in Cádiz, 7,943 in Granada, 7,435 in Almería, 5,417 in Córdoba, 4,814 in Jaén and 4,141 in Huelva. The recruitment of these children will be done from the health system, by phone call, so parents will not have to call or make an appointment. Likewise, children born after October 1 will be immunized in the hospital before being discharged from maternity.

Healthy children are included for the first time

The Primary Care pediatrician at the La Fuensanta de Córdoba health center, Montserrat Montes, explains to this newspaper that this virus causes “true epidemics” of bronchiolitis in children every season, generating numerous visits to both health centers and clinics. pediatric hospital emergencies, leaving up to 10 or 20% of children admitted.

Although there are recognized situations or diseases that increase the risk of suffering from severe bronchiolitis, 98% of cases admitted and 75% of infants admitted to Pediatric Intensive Care are healthy under six months, that is, without any major previous illness.

In this scenario, this new immunization against RSV with the drug Nirsevimab “It represents an innovation and an important achievement,” highlights the pediatrician. Until now, only children belonging to the risk groups for severe bronchiolitis were immunized and, starting this Monday, healthy children under six months of age will also benefit, “with the incentive of Nirsevimab being much more efficient and also reduced to a single dose”.

The pediatrician also explains that it is an immunization, not a vaccine. The difference is that with a vaccine the child actively creates his or her antibodies, while in an immunization of this type the antibodies are injected directly, which generates faster protection. Nirsevimab is a monoclonal antibody that is manufactured in laboratories with a special technology that has been shown to be “very safe and effective.” Its commercial name is Beyfortus and there are two types of syringes: 50 mg (for infants weighing less than five kilos) and 100 mg (for those weighing five kilos or more).

What is the origin of bronchiolitis?

The cause of bronchiolitis is viral, being the VRS the one mainly involved, and the one that causes the greatest clinical impact, accounting for 70% of hospitalizations. There are other viruses such as rhinovirus, adenovirus, among others, that can also cause it.

What side effect does immunization have?

The most common adverse reaction is mild-moderate rash, which appears two weeks after the vaccine. As with other immunizations on the calendar, a fever and local reaction may appear in the injection area after a week.

Why is it important to put it?

The most important reason, Monserrat Montes clarifies, is to avoid hospitalizations and complications due to this infection, with the suffering it causes for the child and his family, and to reduce its incidence. According to clinical trials, Nirsevimab can prevent more than 80% of bronchiolitis cases due to RSV and, therefore, of admissions for an infection with a variable evolution for which there is no specific treatment.

The vaccine also seeks to avoid the well-known care overload that every autumn-winter causes RSV at different levels of care, coinciding with other seasonal viruses, “favoring coinfection and therefore complications, without forgetting the bronchial hyperreactivity that this infection can cause.”

Have cases of bronchiolitis increased in recent years?

Although the disease “is an old acquaintance”, which usually appears between autumn and winter and is combined with the flu, Last year there was a significant increase in bronchiolitis and other viruses after the withdrawal of containment measures caused by Covid, and due to the lower circulation of viruses in previous years, according to the pediatrician. The situation led to a multitude of consultations in Primary Care, Pediatric Emergencies and an increase in hospitalizations.

In light of this situation, the pediatrician at the La Fuensanta health center has taken the opportunity to reiterate the importance of keep children’s vaccination schedule up to date. “The vaccination campaign against influenza begins right now, another infection that causes epidemics, with which this new immunization does not present any interference,” he explained. Nirsevimab does not interfere with the rest of the vaccines included in the children’s schedule.

Likewise, he recalled the importance of frequent hand washingthe ventilation of spaces, promoting smoke-free environments, using disposable tissues, and “use of common sense: if we suffer from an infectious process, we promote avoidance measures with vulnerable people, among whom are our little patients.”

2023-09-24 04:20:00
#bronchiolitis #vaccine #reach #minors #Córdoba

September 24, 2023 0 comments

Health

Immunization Campaign against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Begins for Children Under Six Months – Important Information for Parents

by Chief editor of world-today-news.com September 23, 2023

written by Chief editor of world-today-news.com

On the verge of this coming Monday, September 25, the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) will begin the immunization campaign against the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia, for children under six months, the College of Physicians of Cádiz (COMCADIZ) encourages fathers and mothers to respond to the summons that they have begun to receive from the Ministry of Health since last September 15.

Doctors Concepción Villaescusa and María Jesús Mojón, territorial delegates of the College of Physicians, together with the pediatrician Dr. Carmen Fidalgo and as coordinators of the COMCADIZ Parent School, call on parents to respond favorably to this campaign, which It is of particular importance as RSV is the main cause of lower respiratory tract infections in infants and causes 80% of bronchiolitis and pneumonia, with high admission rates and a described risk of short and long-term complications. term. As the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP) warns, the majority of hospitalizations due to this virus occur in healthy infants.

Immunization at this time of year is particularly recommended since RSV circulates especially in the months from October to March. This campaign will be carried out until March 31, 2024 with the hashtag #StopBronchiolitis and the objective of achieving high administration rates. The monoclonal antibody that will be administered like a vaccine is Nirsevimab, through a single dose that provides protection for at least least five months.

As reported by the Junta de Andalucía, the doses will be administered to all children born from October 1 to March 31, 2024, as well as to all infants born between April 1 and September 30, 2023. to whom the campaign that begins this Monday is directed.

In addition, it will be administered to children under one year old 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.

2023-09-23 04:00:00
#Doctors #encourage #vaccinating #babies #virus #bronchiolitis

September 23, 2023 0 comments

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