HEALTH. Study finds flu vaccine protects children from getting sick and being hospitalized for illness

Study finds flu vaccine protects children from getting sick and being hospitalized for illness

A study published in the journal Eurosurveillance found that a Spanish flu vaccination campaign for children aged 6 to 59 months in the 2023/24 season was effective in preventing acute respiratory infections (ARIs) and hospitalization after vaccination was first recommended for this age group. groups at the national level.

In the context of Children’s Health Day 2024, which is celebrated on October 7, this study highlights the need for continued efforts to increase childhood vaccination coverage in future seasons.

In this sense, in the 2023/2024 season. Influenza A was dominant, and influenza B was rarely detected. In the fall of 2023, a campaign to vaccinate children against influenza began, and vaccination coverage throughout the country was 31.6%.

The negative case-control study analyzed surveillance data from 12 autonomous communities and 27 hospitals and included pediatric patients aged 6 to 59 months who were tested for influenza.

The study, coordinated by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), included 1364 patients presenting to primary care with acute respiratory infections, of whom 244 tested positive for influenza, and 302 patients hospitalized with severe acute respiratory infections. infections (SARI). 48 of them tested positive for influenza.

Patients’ influenza vaccination data were then collected from the vaccination records of each Autonomous Community. Vaccine effectiveness was determined by comparing the vaccination rate of those who tested positive for influenza with the vaccination rate of those who did not test positive, with vaccination rates being higher among those who tested negative (i.e., the control group). group), which indicates effectiveness.

Vaccine efficacy was then adjusted for potential confounders such as sex, age in months, week of epidemic, presence of chronic diseases, and region or hospital for ARI or SARI models.

EFFICIENCY OVER 70%

The study estimated the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine to be 70 percent against any type of influenza in primary care patients with ARI and 77 percent against influenza in hospitalized patients with SARI.

In primary care, the influenza vaccine was 77 percent (95% CI: 56 to 88%) effective against A(H1N1)pdm09.

When influenza A viruses were subtyped, the most common influenza virus subtype was A(H1N1)pdm09: 61.2 and 43.8 percent in primary care and hospitals, respectively, followed by A(H3N2) with 19 and 18. 8 percent, respectively, unsubtyped. influenza A viruses – 18.6 and 35.4 percent, respectively. Influenza B virus circulation was low.

PUBLIC HEALTH IMPLICATIONS

There are an estimated 109 million cases of influenza virus infection in children aged 0 to 59 months worldwide, and infections can lead to serious illness and consequences. In Spain, children under 5 years of age have the second highest rate of hospitalization due to influenza, second only to the over 65 age group.

The results of this study are consistent with previous studies documenting the effectiveness of influenza vaccines in protecting children’s health.

More than 721,000 minors are in a situation of visual poverty due to economic problems

Spain is far from achieving zero levels of visual poverty caused by a situation of economic vulnerability. Although the figure has dropped slightly from 2022, the average number of children unable to enjoy good vision due to family financial problems was 8.4 percent at the end of last year. Thus, in 2023, the number of minors decreased by almost 40,000 – from 761,157 to 721,497.

These data were presented this Thursday by the association Visión y Vida in a press conference organized with the support of Correos Express, where they updated the data from the report presented in 2022, which talks about the prevalence of “visual poverty” in Spain.

In this case, the data was given for the regions with the highest levels of child visual poverty, so the autonomous city of Ceuta tops the table with 19.8% of child poverty, followed by Asturias (11%), the Balearic Islands and Navarre (10.2% ). , Melilla (10.1%), Valencia (9.6%), Andalusia (9.3%), Aragon (9%), Canary Islands (8.6%) and Catalonia (8.4%). Below average are Galicia (6.2%), Basque Country (6.4%), La Rioja (7.1%), Cantabria (7.2%), Castile and Leon (7.4%), Madrid and Castile-La Mancha (7.5%), Extremadura and Murcia (7.8%).

For adults, the rate rose from 6,126,847 to 6,103,451 by the end of 2023, from 12.9 percent to 12.7 percent. began to experience: energy poverty, food poverty and visual poverty.

Spain ended 2023 with an at-risk-of-poverty rate of 20.2% (INE states that a household is at risk of poverty if its income is below 60% of the national average). Among those under 18, the average rises to 27.10 percent.

Visión y Vida President Salvador Alsina emphasized first of all the importance of addressing this problem among the child population, since “they are of school age and if they have any vision problems, it will be difficult for them to continue their studies.” regularly”. . (…) Poverty isolates, excludes and reduces future opportunities.”

HOW TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM?

One solution, Alsina said, is to know exactly how many children are in this situation, and to do that, “the first thing is feedback.” “We are not fixing anything or very little with some of the decisions made to lower the price of glasses or provide economic value as compensation for them, but the first thing we have to do is really know how many boys and girls they have trouble seeing,” – he warned.

According to the report, 59% of families do not have their children’s vision checked. Yes, pediatric exams are performed, but in this pediatric exam, it is not performed by an ophthalmologist or optometrist, but usually by a pediatrician, “and the exam is very simple.” So the first issue that needs to be addressed and that the administration needs to listen to is testing all children.”

Secondly, it offers visual aids to those who need them. “When someone offers visual aids without looking at them, they begin to solve the problem from the top, when they should start from the very bottom. Reviews first. Then visual aids to those who really need them. You need to do a good screening and offer solutions to the most vulnerable segments of the population, basically all those we saw who had visual poverty as children,” he notes.

Finally, there should be a government or national vision health plan for the population as a whole, and especially for those in vulnerable situations. At this point, he expressed regret that the administration did nothing. “If there are no financial resources, the vision ceases to be a priority, the vision does no harm and ceases to be a priority.”

Incentives that encourage alcoholics to drink again lose their effect after six months of abstinence.

The incentives that encourage alcoholics to drink lose their effect again after six months of abstinence, according to a study carried out by researchers from the 12 October Hospital and the Complutense University of Madrid, whose findings include “addictive behaviour”.

This tendency to direct attention to alcohol-related stimuli is called attentional bias. Some of the most common irritants are places such as a park or bar where the patient has been drinking, or the smells of certain drinks or the smells of these places.

“Attentional bias is a risk factor for relapse because the person continually feels drawn to these cues, which can activate consuming thoughts and intense desires. Reducing it could be an important therapeutic target in hospital programs,” he emphasized. Department of Psychobiology and Methodology of Behavioral Sciences UCM and Hospital Research Institute 12 October i+12 Berta Escudero.

This study recruited 33 patients from the alcohol cessation program at the 12 October Hospital Dual Pathology Unit (Psychiatric Service) and 43 control patients from the general population. All were assessed at two time points: one to three months of abstinence and after six months.

With this approach, the researchers explained, clinical interventions could include techniques such as attentional retraining to help patients shift their attention away from alcohol cues, or behavioral therapy aimed at changing automatic responses to those cues.

Measuring attentional bias may also serve as a useful tool for identifying patients at risk of relapse. “Those with more pronounced attentional drinking tendencies may require additional monitoring and support,” Escudero added.

Finally, knowledge of these processes can help families better understand the situation and create a safer environment that minimizes exposure to these triggers. For patients, this is an incentive to work on self-regulation and impulse control, and to work with therapists to develop personalized strategies for managing stimuli and high-risk situations.

GENERAL WARNING AND ALCOHOL WARNING

Also new to this article is the assessment of two types of attentional bias: general and alcoholic. The first relates to the difficulty of directing attention to general stimuli not related to alcohol. Meanwhile, alcoholic refers to the attraction to alcohol-related cues (wine, pub, hangover, etc.) and is characteristic of alcohol use disorder.

Study leader Laura Orio noted that attentional bias toward alcohol improved during abstinence in patients diagnosed with alcohol use disorder, whereas general attentional bias did not. “This opens up new areas of research to study how these two types of bias develop and interact,” he said.

Among the next steps for the study, researchers include long-term follow-up of patients or comparisons with other substance addictions such as opiates or nicotine.