Valencian Generalitat begins fight against flu with vaccination in schools

This is a claim that pediatricians in Valencia have been making for many years. The flu vaccine should be regularly extended to the youngest children, because they are the ones who become infected first and, in turn, transmit it.

For this reason, the Ministry of Health will launch an important innovation in the campaign to combat influenza.

The President of the Generalitat, Carlos Mason, announced this Wednesday that the next 2024-25 school year will begin school vaccination campaign against influenza in centres for young children and special education students in the Valencian Community.

The goal is to immunize some 72,000 students will be vaccinated intranasally. This way, families will not need to make an appointment or go to health centres, “which will facilitate family reconciliation.”

The goal is to increase the proportion of children vaccinated. Last year, coverage was 30 percent in December, far below what was desired at one of the most critical moments of the flu season.

Minors born in 2020 and 2021 will be vaccinated. students at the pre-school level in public and subsidized centres of the Valencian Community, as well as students in special education centres attended by minors and young people up to 22 years of age, whose families express their willingness to participate in the campaign.

The campaign, which will begin on October 1, is the first of its kind and is being coordinated between the education and health departments. Healthcare teams will schedule vaccination days in collaboration with educational centres. at its facilities as part of the 2024-2025 influenza vaccination campaign.

The last time such an event was held was during the pandemic. It was in December 2021 and on this occasion It was aimed at children aged 5 to 11 years old with the aim of vaccinating them against Covid.

High temperature and pneumonia.

The child is the first to become infected with the flu; he or she develops a very high fever that lasts for about seven days and transmits the infection to adults. Moreover, as Nazareth Medical Center pediatrician Maria Garcés-Sanchez warned during the latest campaign, flu can cause a condition that benefits bacteria. “Flu can be followed by pneumonia, ear infections, or any other infectious episode.”

The flu vaccine is very effective in children because they are organisms that do not usually cause other pathologies as they do in older people.

Last season it was held at the Elda Health Department. pilot experience of influenza vaccination in the training centers of this Faculty of Health.

As the Generalitat explained, the good results have led to its extension to all health departments in the Valencian Community.

The vaccine, which will be administered to preschool-aged children, is administered intranasally. and only for students who have no contraindications to this type of vaccine. It is administered in a small dose into each nostril, it is a trivalent vaccine.

Similarly, in special education centers intramuscular administration of the vaccine in some cases, and simultaneous immunization with the COVID-19 vaccine.

During the previous campaign, the Valencian Community presented childhood influenza vaccination for boys and girls aged 6 to 59 months, a recommendation that is also included by the Public Health Commission for the 2024-25 season.