They warn of low rates of herpes zoster vaccination

Nurse at the Elda Public Health Center (Alicante) Alejandro Cremades warned on Tuesday about low level of vaccination of the population against herpes zosterwhich is available from 2022 and reduces the number of people who develop this disease by 90 percent, and also reduces the presence of complications such as painful vesicles, chronic pain, encephalitis, inflammation of the central nervous system by 90 percent. blindness.

“There are no data at the national level or for many autonomous communities, but the ones we have, such as Castile and Leon, Madrid, Andalusia, Murcia and the Valencian Community, agree that they are relatively low, ranging between 45 and 55 percent for the first dose and a reduction of about 10 percent for the second dose,” Cremades said during a webinar organized by the Higher Institute of Medical Education (ISFOS) of the General Council of Nursing in collaboration with GSK.

In this sense, he explained that vaccination campaigns aimed at healthy adults must continue.”different strategies“Those that target the pediatric population, according to a statement from the General Nursing Council.

Thus, the nurse pointed to activities carried out by some media that “reach a lot of people”, as well as activities in patient associations, pensioners or in cooperation with city councils, in addition to others related to the dissemination of information or recruitment through messages or phone calls.

“We are talking about a relatively recent vaccine on our calendar that needs wider roots in society and among the target population. We all know someone who has had it, and for many people it causes such enormous pain that it can even affect their life. personal, work and social. We know that vaccines work, and as nurses we must convey this to the population,” said the ISFOS director. Pilar Fernandez.

This reluctance towards the vaccine can be explained, as experts said at the meeting, by the fact that Vaccine fatigue after Covid-19 pandemic and “the number of anti-vaccination hoaxes” present on social media.

This is why the doctor specialized in family medicine of the Continuing Education Unit of the Primary Health Care Directorate of the Community of Madrid, Miguel Angel Acostacalled promote the right information both online and in the media: “We must promote correct information online and in the media, and provide scientific evidence to support correct vaccination. idea”. a way of raising awareness among the rest of society,” he added.

In the same spirit, Nursing and Vaccination Coordinator of the Tres Cantos II Medical Center – Embarcaciones Sector (Madrid): Raquel Garcia-Floresmade a choice in favor practice communication “be able to clearly convey truthful information to the user and clarify his doubts” and be “a reliable source for the public”: “It is useless for us to accumulate a lot of knowledge if we do not know how to convey it to the population. It’s not easy and it takes a lot of time, but every time we get a person to choose vaccination by providing them with the right information and resolving their doubts, it’s a big victory,” he stressed.

One of the goals is to create spaces “where patients can learn about vaccines, where they can ask questions, where they can easily get vaccinated,” after which he insisted that “we must educate through consultations” and through community projects . .