The Pediatrics Association recommends influenza vaccination for children under 18 years of age.

Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Immunization Spanish Association of Pediatricians (CAV-AEP) has announced a significant update to its influenza vaccination recommendations for the 2024-2025 season, extending systematic vaccination to 18 years of age for the first time. This decision marks an important milestone in the fight against influenza in Spain and highlights the importance the importance of protecting children and adolescents from this disease.

The intranasal vaccine is preferably recommended from 2 years of age.

, the minimum age from which it can be used according to the technical sheet. According to the committee, this vaccine has many advantages over traditional injectionssuch as greater acceptability among children, ease of use, superior efficacy and lower incidence of side effects.

CAV-AEP emphasizes that influenza vaccination should be considered routine for all children and adolescents aged 6 months to 18 years. In particular, this calls for urgent improvements in vaccination rates in children from 6 to 59 months – a group whose coverage is currently insufficient.

Data show that people under 15 years of age, especially those under 5 years of age, have the highest rates of illness and hospitalization for influenza, comparable to rates among people over 65 years of age. In addition, children are the main carriers of the virus. In Spain, influenza causes more deaths among children than meningitis, with an average of seven deaths each year among children hospitalized for influenza, aged 0 to 15 years. The disease also has a significant socioeconomic impact due to the school and work absences it causes.

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In December 2022, the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (ICNHS) included systematic influenza vaccination of children aged 6 to 59 months in the unified vaccination schedule for 2023. This measure has been implemented in all autonomous entities by the 2023-2024 season. with some communities such as Andalusia, Galicia and the Murcia region moving forward by one year. This recommendation has now been expanded to include all children and adolescents under 18 years of age.