revenue decreased by 80%

Vaccination campaign against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), launched by the Galician Health Service (Sergas) in September 2023. reduced the number of hospitalizations of children by almost 80%preventing more than 400 cases in children under 6 months of age.

This basic information offered this Thursday, in a press conference, the Minister of Health, Antonio Gómez Caamaño, accompanied by the Director General of Public Health, Carmen Duran, and the researcher and head of pediatrics at the University Hospital Complex of Santiago (CHUS), Federico Martinon, the main promoter of this initiative in Galicia.

RSV is the cause of bronchiolitis, the main reason for hospitalization in children under 24 months. In the first two years of life, Galicians were most likely to suffer from this virus: one out of every 56 healthy children was admitted to the hospital, and 5.5% of them may need palliative care.

According to data presented at Sergas’ headquarters in the Compostela district of San Lazaro and already published in The Lancet Infectioushoods, immunization against RSV with nirsevimab has reduced hospitalizations by up to 80%.

In addition, Sergas discovered decrease in income for any reason 66% and a reduction in the circulation of the virus itself, although it is too early to say definitively since RSV detection testing is not routinely performed in primary care.

Participation data

“We won. Galicians won“, noted the Director General, considering the “success” of the campaign, which reached 92.3% coverage of children born on September 25, when immunization officially began. The first child to receive the vaccine was a child from Ourense, followed by 13,500 more children .were administered.

Participation was almost 100% in children with one or another pathology, and in those born on April 1, 2023 and later, repeat admission reached “almost 85%.” Of course, Sanidade inflates the real figure to 90%, given that there are women who gave birth to children in Galicia and subsequently returned to their autonomous communities of origin.

Taking these results into account, Carmen Duran has already announced that a new immunization campaign against RSV will be carried out this year, probably on very similar dates – it will start at the end of September and those born after April 1 will be “overfished” ” ‘.

“State and international” prestige

The Health Minister, in his first speech to the press since taking office in mid-May, emphasized prestige “nationally and internationally” which Sergas acquires.

“This is another reason to be proud,” said Gómez Caamaño, since Galicia is “the first community in the world” to introduce RSV vaccination. This makes it the territory with “the most comprehensive vaccination schedule in the world.”

In fact, the initiative “went around the whole world.” As researcher Federico Martinon later assessed, there was still more than 50 publications of results Galician campaign in leading scientific medical journals.

“It was a joint effort of all of us, the right decision of the department and the determination of the fathers and mothers,” said the head of the pediatric department of the Santiago clinic, emphasizing that the data “confirms that this is a model.” .

“The best medicine is prevention”. In the Galician government, we are committed to forecasting and immunization, especially of those recently born,” said the adviser, not forgetting to thank the “participation” of fathers and mothers in the campaign, as well as the workers of Sergas.