Vaccination against ticks, insect spray against West Nile fever and a look at the vaccination book: what Franconian doctors now advise.
The fear of corona infection should not lead to missing necessary vaccinations or vaccination boosters. Many citizens currently believed that they should not or should not go to their doctor because of a booster vaccination; but this is fundamentally wrong, says Professor August Stich, infectiologist and chief physician of the clinic for tropical medicine at the mission medical clinic in Würzburg. “If significantly more people than usual are currently neglecting the necessary vaccinations, the basic immunization of the population for many diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, diphtheria or polio is questioned,” Stich warns. Diseases that have long since been suppressed can then appear again in the future.
The professional association of German pediatricians reports that fewer parents are currently bringing their children to preventive checkups and vaccination appointments. However, there seem to be clear regional differences in vaccination care. “His parents” appeared with their children on the prescribed vaccinations, says the Lower Franconian representative of the pediatricians’ association, Jürgen Marseille from Röttingen (Würzburg district). “However, many parents are understandably unsettled because one or the other colleague has meanwhile also started his practice has shut down, ”said the doctor. Fortunately, many parents would reinsure themselves before the treatment whether appointments actually took place and distance regulations could be observed, but luckily they would come into practice. Which makes a lot of sense.
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow, dpa
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Corona patients show severe courses if they have flu at the same time
“We need vaccination protection, and we need it especially in this exceptional year when we have the flu vaccination in autumn,” says Marseille Flu is vaccinated. “We do not want flu and corona viruses to mix in one body.” According to previous knowledge, corona patients show more severe courses with flu at the same time.
Flu protection helps to cope with future corona waves
Professor Stich is also very keen to raise public awareness of the flu vaccine in the fall. “Vaccination is not only a protection for the individual, but also very important from an epidemiological point of view,” he says. It will help doctors to deal with future corona waves if “the background noise caused by other respiratory diseases” can be suppressed. According to Thomas Metz, spokesman for the Bavarian Pharmacists’ Association, the availability of the necessary flu vaccine for Bavaria is currently guaranteed.
Minister of Health allows doctors to build more vaccine stocks
Health Minister Jens Spahn, SPD, wants to immunize the Germans extensively against the next flu virus. The federal government has already ordered 4.5 million flu vaccine doses; in addition to the 20 million vaccine doses that usually arrive in Germany. Spahn also allows doctors to build up to 30 percent more flu vaccine stocks than usual this year, without having to be reimbursed by health insurers for “uneconomical prescription”.
Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst, dpa
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Vaccinations against ticks are particularly recommended for hikers
But before the flu pee in autumn there is still the tick pee in early summer – at least for those who take into account the recommendations of medical doctor Stich. Due to Corona, many citizens would probably not spend their summer vacation on a Mediterranean coast, but rather in the Fichtel Mountains, in the Bavarian Forest or on the Mecklenburg Lake District, according to Stich. But if you don’t lie on the towel by the pool this year, but hike through native forests as an exception, you should definitely check your yellow vaccination booklet to see if you have been vaccinated against ticks.
Large parts of southern Germany in particular are considered to be TBE risk areas, i.e. they are home to ticks that can transmit early summer meningoencephalitis, a meningitis. “You need two vaccinations for short-term protection, three for years of protection,” says Stich. In addition, Stich advises buying enough insect repellent: Due to the climate change, the life-threatening West Nile fever transmitted by mosquitoes is becoming native to Germany. “A year ago it jumped over the Alps,” said Stich. You can’t vaccinate here, but you can spray.
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