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The Balmis Vaccine Institute, together with professionals from the Navarre Health Service, organizes the XVIII Navarra Conference on Vaccines, which will bring together the leading national experts in vaccinology and immunization. This annual congress will take place on February 23 and 24, 2023 at the College of Physicians of Navarra and is endorsed by the Spanish Vaccinology Association.

After the success of the last edition, in which more than 300 professionals participated, this meeting will once again be held both online and in person. The initiative is aimed at paediatricians, family doctors, nurses, pharmacists and all health personnel interested in vaccines and immunization.

The XVIII Navarra Conference on Vaccines will begin on Thursday, the 23rd, at 4:00 p.m. with a round table, moderated by Dr. Isabel Martín Montaner, a pediatrician from the Navarro Health Service, in which the status of new vaccines. Thus, after some basic notions of immunology by Dr. José Gómez Rial, immunologist at the Santiago de Compostela Clinical University Hospital, Dr. Quique Bassat, pediatrician and clinical epidemiologist at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, will talk about the vaccine against malaria. For his part, Dr. Manuel Baca, head of the Pediatrics and Neonatology Service at Hospital Quirónsalud Málaga, will discuss advances in the prevention of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Dr. Judith Chamorro, head of the Preventive Medicine and Hygiene Service Hospitaller of the University Hospital of Navarra, will give the keys to vaccination against Herpes Zoster.

Controversies about vaccination against Covid-19 in children

Next, the experts will delve into the current situation and the future of vaccination against some diseases that are very topical, such as Covid-19 and meningitis. This table will be moderated by Dr. José García-Sicilia, consultant pediatrician and former president of the Pediatric Society of Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha. In it, Dr. Javier Díez Domingo, director of the FISABIO Vaccine Research Area (Valencia), will address the controversies over vaccination against Covid-19 in children; Dr. Sonia Tamames, General Director of Public Health of the Junta de Castilla y León, will speak about the different types of meningococcus; and Dr. Francisco Giménez, director of the Balmis Vaccine Institute, will focus on international vaccines. Subsequently, the pediatricians of the Hospital Universitario de Navarra Mercedes Herranz and Natividad Viguria will present clinical cases on immunopreventable infections.

New indications and presentations of influenza vaccines

The Conference will continue on Friday, February 24, with two round tables moderated by Dr. Isabel Martin. The first one will address the future of vaccination against pneumococcus, by Dr. Jesús Ruiz Contreras, Head of Pediatrics at Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid; the new indications and presentations of flu vaccines, whose presentation will be given by Dr. Valentín Pineda, pediatrician at the Hospital de Sabadell and former president of the Catalan Society of Pediatrics; and the novelties of vaccination against HPV, by Dr. Manuel García-Cenoz, a specialist in Preventive Medicine and Public Health.

In the second of the round tables, Yolanda Velaz, a nurse specializing in pediatrics and founder of “No one like mom”, will insist on the importance of dissemination of vaccines. In addition, Dr. Fernando Moraga, vice president of the Spanish Vaccinology Association, will explain the novelties in vaccination against Covid-19 and Dr. Magda Campins, head of Preventive Medicine at the Vall d’Hebron Hospital (Barcelona), will influence in the vaccine response to current emergencies.

The Conference will end with an interactive session in which the most frequent questions about vaccines asked to the Vaccine Advisory Committee of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (CAV-AEP) will be presented, in charge of pediatricians Mara Garcés, from the Nazareth Health Center ( Valencia), and Francisco Álvarez, coordinator of the AEP Vaccine Advisory Committee.

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