Madrid (EFE).- The Public Health Commission analyzes this Tuesday the recommendations for vaccination against flu and covid-19, as well as immunization against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) of babies up to 6 months old for the next campaign that starts in October.
The meeting of the general directors of Public Health of the Ministry of Health and the communities will begin at 10:30 with an analysis of the situation in which covid-19 finds itself after the new rebound in the summer and the evolution of the variants in circulation .
Vaccination schedule
Then, according to the agenda to which EFE has had access, they will address the recommendations and the start day of the vaccination campaign against covid-19 and the flu – which since 2021 has been done jointly – and the first immunization against the RSV that causes bronchiolitis, in whose organization all the communities have been working for a long time.
Some, like the Valencian Community, have even given the date on which the double campaign will begin: October 16.
Regarding the joint covid-flu campaign, in July, the Commission approved the document “Vaccination recommendations against flu and COVID-19 in the 2023-2024 season in Spain”, in which the target groups were established.
These are those over 60; people over 5 years of age confined in residences and disability centers, as well as other people institutionalized for a long time and residing in closed institutions; under 60 in risk conditions, pregnant women in any trimester of pregnancy and women during the postpartum period and cohabitants of immunosuppressed people.
Also the staff of public and private health and socio-health centers (except students for whom vaccination against the flu is only recommended) and workers of essential public services, “with special emphasis” on the security forces and bodies, firefighters and emergency services. civil protection.
Recommendations for getting vaccinated against the flu
In addition, the flu test is recommended for children from 6 to 59 months and people from 5 to 59 years old with a higher risk of complications – those between 5 and 18 years old who receive prolonged treatment with acetylsalicylic acid and smokers -, students in internships in health and social health centers and people with direct occupational exposure to animals or their secretions on poultry, pig or mink farms or farms or to wildlife.
The document stressed that, according to the epidemiological situation and the acquired immunity of the population at that time, “vaccination against COVID-19 would not be justified in people not included” in these groups.
And it made it clear that “it will be carried out preferably with new adapted vaccines”; Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax work on them, although for now only the first, known as Comirnaty Ómicron XBB.1.5, already has the support of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Commission.
The vaccination campaign against RSV prioritizes at-risk babies
Meanwhile, the first immunization campaign against RSV will prioritize at-risk babies – premature babies of less than 35 weeks, with severe immunosuppression, with Down syndrome or in palliative care, among others – and then those under 6 months at the beginning. or during the virus season, that is, those born between April 1 of this year and March 31 of next year.
Aside from all this, Health and the communities will address the update on health alerts, such as the botulism that broke out at the end of July due to the consumption of packaged potato tortillas, diseases transmitted by vectors and the situation of the cancer screening program in the National Health System.
