The vaccine continues to be, to this day, the only shield against meningitis, a infectious disease who is a great unknown despite being the cause of over two and a half million deaths worldwide every year, according to the Spanish Association against Meningitis (AME). For this reason, ensuring that all available vaccines against this disease are included in the basic childhood vaccination program continues to be the workhorse of this organization, chaired by the doctor of Redondela. Cristina Regojo Balboa, specialist in Clinical Analysis in the Health Area of Vigo.
“Vaccines were a before and after. The meningitis vaccination has saved many lives and prevented many more people from suffering lifelong consequences. Some have been included in the vaccination schedule, but others are missing. Nor is this homogeneous. We strive to standardize it so that it is equally protected throughout Spain meningitis B, the most dangerous serogroup, “says Regojo, who has profound bilateral deafness, a follow-up to the meningitis he had when he was four.
Galicia and Catalonia have just added it to their vaccination calendar this year, joining Melilla, Castilla y León, the Canary Islands and Andalusia. who were among the first to include it in their respective childhood vaccination programs. “But what happens with the rest of the communities and with all of Spain? It is the parents who must decide and pay for the vaccine. It is still terrible to see that protecting yourself from this disease today depends on your parents’ wallet and zip code, ”adds Regojo.
The president of the AEM warns that meningitis is a serious illness that can affect anyone and at any age, and whose nonspecific symptoms make early diagnosis very difficult. “Furthermore, it has a high risk of mortality and serious sequelae, which makes it very difficult to understand that in the 21st century we allow many people to get sick when it can be prevented with a vaccine. Today it is the only wall against meningitis ”, she insists.
Another of AEM’s workhorses is that people with meningitis have the support and help needed so that the sequelae left by the disease does not prevent them from being independent and having a good quality of life. “There is still a lot to do and we ask the association that protection is no longer an outstanding issue. And something even more basic: knowing the disease to fight it, including the training necessary for the visiting doctor to have the knowledge to detect it and save lives “, explains Regojo, who will be in Madrid next Friday at the presentation of “Valentina superheroine”, story of ‘Lucía, mi pediatrician’, whose profits will go to those suffering from this disease.
“It is still terrifying to see that protecting yourself from this disease today depends on your parents’ pocket and zip code”
The AME took the pulse of society and took to the streets to ask citizens for basic notions about the disease: what it is, how can it be prevented, if it affects children or adults, what are its symptoms and consequences … and she found that little is actually known about her. “We have verified that it continues to be a great unknown despite being the sixth cause of death from infectious disease in a ranking of deaths from 1 to 100. Little is known and even less about its impact on general health. For example, there is a widespread belief that it only affects children. This is serious. Something that is not known is not detected. On the other hand, if you know the symptoms you can save a life: meningitis can cause death in as little as 8 or 10 hours and in many cases it leaves important sequelae that seriously affect the quality of life of the people who have suffered from it. Meningococcal sepsis, in fact, is one of the main causes of death from infection in children and adolescents in our country ”, warns the Galician specialist.
Green takes to the streets to make this pathology visible
More than fifty institutions and monuments, including the Alhambra in Granada, the Cibeles in Madrid and municipalities such as O Carballiño, Ribeira, Pamplona and Gijón, will light up green today to make this disease visible under the motto #beat his meningitis. International Meningitis Day is celebrated for the first time this year on October 5 (up until April 24) thanks to the agreement reached with the World Health Organization (WHO) and patient associations around the world to put in function the hRoadmap “Defeat Meningitis in 2030”. Achieving this goal is, according to Regojo, a question of “political will”.
“WHO urged all relevant institutions to take the necessary measures, focusing on disease prevention, awareness and visibility. A year ago we signed a manifesto together with the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, the Spanish Association of Pediatric Nursing and the National Association of Nursing and Vaccines entitled “Spanish response against meningitis: goal to defeat meningitis by 2030” for break with the existing inequality in Spain regarding the protection against meningitis, in our case, regarding the protection against meningitis B “, explains. In this regard, the president of the AEM assures that the only reason not to implanting the meningococcal B vaccine in the vaccination calendar of the Ministry of Health is economical.
“The decision-making process has been ignored and delayed regarding the inclusion of all vaccines available to protect children from this serious disease. They have the necessary scientific evidence, recommendations from medical societies and, we, the Spanish Association against Meningitis. , on behalf of those affected and their families, We denounced the situation of inequality and asked for it to be included in the vaccination calendar. There are no valid objective criteria to defend non-inclusion in the vaccination program. When it comes to lives, we shouldn’t be talking about statistics or cost effectiveness. One life is enough to make this decision, “he complains.
