Pediatricians expected the bronchiolitis vaccine to be a turning point. And data from the first cold season, when babies under six months of age are usually vaccinated, seems to prove them right: hospitalizations in plants and intensive care unit Because of this respiratory pathology, they collapsed. But in addition to the fact that fewer children under this age are now infected, there is another advantage: with more beds available, we do not have to postpone elective surgeries, as happened in previous autumns or winters during bronchiolitis peaks, because the hospital pathology, he lost consciousness.
“There is a contingency plan in place and in previous years sometimes elective surgeries had to be postponed because there was no space. Thanks to immunization, not only did hospitalization for bronchiolitis decrease, but it was also possible to maintain planned activities,” explained the head Regional Department of Intensive Care and Emergency Pediatric Care, José Camacho.
Because those resources – both human and beds – that this pathology previously consumed, in the current cold season were aimed at maintaining surgical equipment at full capacity. Other years when there was no place in the intensive care unit or on plants in the postoperative period, some interventions had to be postponed for certain days. “Operating room programming had to be stopped due to bronchiolitis. But it didn’t have to stop this year,” he insisted.
That is, not only those children who did not become infected with the disease benefited. respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the leading cause of bronchiolitis, and those whose surgery was not delayed due to hospital overcrowding. That’s why Camacho emphasizes that this vaccine has proven positive not only for the children immunized and, as a side effect, for the rest who have beds, but for the entire system.
Until last fall there was a drug (palivizumab), which required monthly revaccination throughout the cold season. For this reason, the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) considered immunizing only the most vulnerable children. But last year another one entered the market (nirsevimab), which with a single puncture protects for five months in cooler temperatures when RSV circulates. For this reason, SAS has generalized the vaccination of all children under six months of age, including healthy children. In fact this is not a vaccine (this is when the body develops immunity), but monoclonal antibody (in which protective equipment already manufactured in the laboratory is used). Since the campaign began last fall, 94% of eligible infants have been vaccinated.
Camacho clarifies that consultations in Maternal emergencies Because of this respiratory infection, their numbers have dropped from about 900 last season to 240 this season. In addition, the number of hospitalizations in intensive care units for this pathology decreased by a quarter; from approximately 80 cases of bronchiolitis in intensive care units last year to almost twenty this season. Moreover, the latter, he clarified, are mainly children older than six months who were not included in the vaccine, or those with bronchiolitis, but caused by viruses other than RSV. Of those who found themselves in ICU for bronchiolitis
He added that half had not been vaccinated; either because they were unvaccinated foreigners or children born in private clinics who did not contact public health authorities to receive the appropriate vaccination.