New phase in the process of immunization against coronavirus in the community. The Extremadura Health Service (SES) plans to start vaccinate minors between the ages of 5 and 11 in a couple of weeks. This was conveyed a few days ago by the Minister of Health and Social Services of the Board, José María Vergeles, who stated that the idea of the regional government is “to administer the pediatric vaccine as soon as it is incorporated into the vaccination strategy and the doses are available, which could be in the middle of December ». According to the data provided to this newspaper from the counseling, in the community there are between 85,000 and 90,000 children who are in that age range. “We are refining the lists, calculating days and year of birth to adjust the ages for the pediatric vaccine,” they point out.
On this matter, it should be remembered that Last week the European Medicines Agency (EMA) authorized the administration of the vaccine developed by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNtech to children between 5 and 11 years. As in the case of adults, the bet is that minors receive two punctures with an interval of three weeks between the first and the second. What does vary is the dose, since it is recommended that it be a third of that received by the population over 12 years of age.. From Health they assure that the SES is already “working on logistics” to carry out this vaccination process, but It has not yet been agreed in which places it will be developed. The only thing that is clear, for now, is that it will be the SES who calls or summons for the vaccination.
SES clear bet
To questions from the media before attending an event in Badajoz last week, Vergeles distanced himself from the statements of the president of the Bioethics Committee of Spain, Federico Montalvo, who had pointed out that it is debatable to vaccinate children. In his opinion, the doses for minors “should be incorporated into the vaccination schedule as soon as possible”. The head of public health in Extremadura said that it should be taken into account that the incidence of the coronavirus will increase, because “there are times of more mobility, which the virus likes, and of meetings that mix many generations, one of them those of children 5 to 11 years who are not yet protected, “so the vaccine should be given” as soon as possible “to protect older people. “It is true that children tend to develop less severe disease, although some develop it, and only as soon as there is one is any vaccination program worthwhile,” he said.
According to the latest data published by the Ministry of Health, as of last Friday, the 14-day cumulative incidence per one hundred thousand inhabitants among those under 11 years of age in the region is 108.55 cases, almost half of that registered at the national level, which amounts to 274.06 cases. This is the age group with the highest cumulative incidence, well ahead of the next group, which at the regional level would be adults aged 60 to 69 years, with 84.60 cases.
Adverse reactions by 0.16%
The latest pharmacovigilance report on vaccines against covid-19, published by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), indicates that the Spanish Pharmacovigilance System for Medicines for Human Use has received, until November 14, a total of 50,824 reports of adverse events after the administration of almost 72 million doses of inoculated vaccines, which is equivalent to 71 incidences per 100,000 vaccinated, and only one in five were serious.
According to the latest report from the Regional Pharmacovigilance Center, until October 31, a total of 1,776,599 doses of coronavirus vaccines had been administered and only 0.16% of possible adverse reactions were reported, of which 83% corresponded to mild cases and 17% to severe ones. It should be noted that most of the incidents were reported by women (75.5%). By age ranges, it should be noted that 87% of the notifications were made by people between 18 and 65 years old, 1.3% by adolescents between 12 and 17 years old, and 11.37% by those over 65 years of age.
Of the total adverse events that were reported in the region, 50.44% have recovered, 20.40% are in recovery, 9.24% have not recovered, 1.06% had a fatal outcome and 0.66% have recovered with sequelae, 17.65% of which is unknown.
The most commonly reported adverse events were pain in the vaccination area, fever, and headache, followed by myalgia, fatigue, arthalgia, and lymphadepathy. With regard to brands, the one that caused the most adverse effects in the region was Pfizer, with 68%; followed by AstraZeneca, with 15%; Modern, 14%; and Janssen with less than 3%,
The Ministry of Health and Social Services emphasizes that for any notification of suspected adverse reaction, there is no certainty that the drug has caused it. The accumulation of reported cases cannot be used to calculate the incidence or to estimate the risk of adverse drug reactions.
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