Flu Vaccine | Pediatricians Ask for ‘More Resources’ to Avoid Neglecting Health Centers for School Vaccinations

Health Ministry to vaccinate over 72,000 students against flu in schools starting in October. This was reported by president Generalitat spokesman Carlos Mason this Wednesday, who stressed that The school vaccination campaign this 2024-25 school year targets preschool and special education students. K. Valenciana.

Luis Blesa, President Valencian Association Pediatrics, explains that this measure has clear benefits, but its implementation will require “reinforcement” of medical personnel. “Medical centers have been at a minimum level for several years now, and this leads to an even greater deterioration in their quality, and with it the quality of medical care. Programming and additional resources are a good idea, and we hope that they will implement them,” says Blesa.

The Confederation of Ampasa Gonzalo Anaya, for its part, She is not convinced by this measure and claims that“The best place to get vaccinated is in a medical center,” Blesa agrees, saying “we have history, staff, and a lot of resources that a relocation doesn’t have.”

However, just because it is the best site does not mean it is the most effective. For Blesa, this type campaigns Universal vaccination is more effective the larger the percentage of the population it covers, and it is recommended to go to where the population is concentrated. “That is what we are aiming for: the more doses, the better, and we guarantee that by ensuring that parents do not have to go to the health center, especially with children aged 3 or 4 years,” he says. For ages 6 months to 2 years, there are not so many problems, because “checkups are very frequent, and we can take advantage of that to administer the dose,” he says.

Another big problem that pediatricians are asking staff to solve is logistics. “You must think that they should send permissions to all parents, sign them and send them to them, see if there are any students with special characteristics among them… It’s a huge logistical task, ideally it would be to have reinforced teams,” he says. The Ampas are also aware of this and claim that the vaccination has “its own resources” and does not harm medical centers.

It will start on October 1st.

This campaign, which will start on October 1st, is First school vaccination against flu launched by the Generalitat and is coordinated between the education and health departments. As part of the 2024-2025 flu vaccination campaign, health care teams are planning vaccination days at their sites with educational centers.

Last season A pilot vaccination experiment was carried out in the Elda Health Department. against influenza in the training centres of this health department, culminating in a successful participation that led to its extension to all health departments of the Valencian Community, Efe reports.

For intranasal administration

The vaccine, which will be given to children in preschools This is for intranasal administration. and only for students who have no contraindications to this type of vaccine. It is administered as a small dose into each nostril and is a trivalent vaccine.

Similarly, in special educational centers, in certain cases, the administration of intramuscular vaccine and simultaneous immunization with the Covid-19 vaccine will be considered.