Galicia calls its vaccination campaign a national benchmark

Galicia’s director general of health, Carmen Duran, praised her region’s vaccination campaign as a national benchmark. He did this during a meeting of the Health Commission of the Galician Parliament, where, in response to a question, he outlined the Council’s directions for action regarding vaccination.

The Director General of Public Health emphasized that the Galician community has a lifelong vaccination schedule, the purpose of which is prevention and immunization is not related only to age. He explained that experts classify Galicia’s immunization calendar as the most comprehensive in the world, a calendar that responds to a thorough analysis of the needs of Galician citizens regarding vaccine-preventable diseases..

The director therefore highlighted the work her department is doing to ensure transparency, citing as a first step the creation of the Galician Public Health Observatory, which includes vaccine indicators. On the other hand, he emphasized the responsibility of the citizens of Galicia, who year after year ensure the highest level of vaccination among the population of Galicia against both COVID-19 and influenza.

Directions for action

In this regard, he emphasized that the first of these areas is to review and evaluate scientific evidence on new vaccines or new indications, as well as the development of epidemiological surveillance networks for infectious diseases.

As the Director General emphasized, based on information obtained from both surveillance and vaccine sales, “Decisions can be made about which immunization methods should be included in the lifelong immunization schedule.”

The second line of action identified by Carmen Duran is related to immunization research. Thus, Durán noted that, through the Galician School of Public Health, the Galician Department of Health maintains collaboration with various research groups, which allowed the initiation of the Nirsegal study on immunization against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) or the Galflu clinical trial with a high-burden influenza vaccine. This line of work has shown that the RSV vaccine is 82% effective in preventing infants from being hospitalized for this infection..

Along with the above, as a third area of ​​work, Carmen Duran emphasized that healthcare has begun management based on translational research, so that The results obtained from scientific research serve public health to determine immunization strategies and evaluate strategies already implemented.

In her speech, Carmen Durán highlighted the work the Council is doing to ensure transparency, citing as a first step the creation of the Galician Public Health Observatory, which includes vaccine indicators, as well as publications in real time and in different languages. results achieved with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination to allow other countries to review and take them into account.

Vaccination schedule for life

In statements to GM, the director emphasized that in 2023 this vaccination schedule will be optimized for life, i.e.including rotavirus vaccine, quadrivalent meningococcal vaccine at 4 months, and nirsevimab against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). In addition, the 20-valent pneumococcal vaccine was introduced among adults for people aged 65 years and the herpes zoster (HZ) vaccine for the 65 and 80 year groups. He also explained that in the first half of this year, “we included a 20-valent vaccine against pneumococcus in the child population in the calendar, and we also re-vaccinated 2-year-old children with the same vaccine with the goal of increasing the direct and indirect protection of our population from pneumococcus.” Today he added: “We evaluate new vaccines coming to market, as well as recommendations for expanding existing vaccines to other age groups or risk groups.

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Duran also highlighted the innovations in Galicia regarding the management of vaccination campaigns, which are an example at the national level, using digital appointment systems, QR codes to speed up the administrative process or offering citizens all health centers with flexible openings. among other measures.

Carmen Duran ended her speech by mentioning the responsibility of Galician citizens who: Year after year, Galicia has the highest COVID-19 and flu vaccination rates, well above the average for the state as a whole..

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