Dew magnani
03/07/2021 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 03/07/2021 6:00 AM
The City of Buenos Aires faces
one of the greatest challenges in its history
to carry out the regular vaccination schedule together with the immunization campaign against the coronavirus, which not only poses challenges in terms of the availability of doses to supply all groups population risk, but includes different types of vaccines, which require different protocols and are under permanent review by the scientific sphere.
How will
the flu and Covid-19 vaccination campaigns
coexist this year
?
How is the schedule expected to follow?
On Monday, February 22, the City began the second stage of immunization against the coronavirus aimed at people over 80 years of age and adults living in nursing homes, thanks to the arrival of 40,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covishield.
Meanwhile, it is advancing to complete the vaccination of health workers, most of them with Russia's Sputnik-V, which also requires two doses, and announced that it will start giving Sinopharm to teachers.
15,000 adults over 80 years of age have already been vaccinated in the City of Buenos Aires.
Photo: Andrea D'Elia
The Undersecretary of Primary Care, Gabriel Battistella, explained to
Clarín
that of the Covishield doses applied to the elderly, there were "few adverse reactions."
And he gave details of how the two vaccination campaigns will continue.
Q: Are there estimates of when the flu vaccination would start this year?
`` We don't have a start date yet.
Generally, flu vaccines arrive between the end of March and the beginning of April at the National Ministry of Health, and the ministry is distributing them in the different jurisdictions.
What is clear is that, this year, we are prioritizing vaccination against Covid-19 and then that of the flu.
- Do both vaccines correspond to the same groups of people?
--If you correlate the indication groups, those under 2 years of age with the classic influenza vaccine and those pregnant women who are not health professionals or do not have risk factors to be vaccinated by Covid would be out of what is Covid.
The City estimates that flu vaccination for older adults will begin in June this year.
Photo: Andrés D'Elía
- So, this year those two groups would start earlier with the flu vaccination?
--Of course.
--And the rest?
From the literature, the Covid-19 vaccination must be differentiated by at least 15 days from any other vaccination.
Since it is a new vaccine, you cannot give both together.
You have to take that precaution due to the interactions that may exist with each other and that are not known, because there was never a vaccination between the two.
--But, is there evidence of any kind of contraindication in combining vaccination against flu and Covid?
`` There is nothing documented.
The Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, together with the Undersecretary of Primary Care of the City, Gabriel Armando Battistella, in an operation Detect in the field of San Lorenzo, in front of Barrio 1.11.14.
Photo: Fernando de la Orden
- Last year the flu vaccination campaign started earlier than usual. Could the same happen this year?
- Last year we started the flu vaccination at Easter, on April 9.
And as we will do now, health personnel are always vaccinated first and then the rest.
And this year. What will the strategy be like? What learnings from the pandemic will be harnessed?
- The campaign against the flu is going to follow what we are doing now, especially with the elderly who are the main group to be vaccinated.
We already have gymnastics, because this is the third campaign we do in the middle of the pandemic.
We did the flu in 2020, then we did the 5/6 year and 11 year old between September and October, and now we are with the Covid-19.
We already have an electronic medical record and all vaccines go into the electronic record of each person.
--And the pneumococcal, is it also given this year?
Yes, the indication for pneumococcal medicine changed two years ago.
Every adult over 65 has to have two doses of pneumococcal vaccine separated from each other in a year with 2 different serotypes.
The vaccine has one of 13 and one of 23. With those two doses you already have the complete vaccination schedule.
This year we are going to add it to the vaccination schedule and it will depend on the clinical history of each person if it has to be applied or not and what type.
If you have 13, you will be given 23;
If you have 23, we will give you 13, and with the two doses you already have a complete immunization.
So this year we are going to be applying the two doses of the pneumococcal, according to the case of each person.
The anti-flu, on the other hand, must be applied every year.
- Are the places that are going to be used to vaccinate the same as those of the Covid vaccination campaign?
-Yes, they are the same, because they are aimed at the same population and are distributed based on the population density of older adults, so we are fine with that.
Probably, for the flu, other effectors that are not there now are added.
Added to that are social works and private vaccinations that also have the flu vaccine.
--And as for the start of the application of the flu, what is the expectation? When does the City Ministry of Health foresee that the two doses will already be applied to those over 80 based on how the arrival of the next doses is being projected?
-Those who are getting vaccinated against Covid now will have their second dose in 84 days.
In other words, after 84 days you have to wait 15 more days to give the flu vaccine, unless some other regulation appears, which is generally a national immunization council that lowers these regulations.
We still do not have any new ones, but there is the directive that they must be distanced.
First, you have to end everything that is older adults with Covid-19 and then go to the flu stage.
- Why 84 days until the older adult has the two doses?
--The 84 days are because the Covishield vaccine is more effective the more interval there is between each dose.
Then, the second dose will be applied between 10 and 11 weeks.
All those who are vaccinated with this vaccine, and we assume that a large amount of this will arrive in the next time, they will have to wait these 84 days to apply their second dose.
It will depend a lot on what is coming.
If we start with Sputnik-V in older adults, it will be 21 days.
--To give an example, in the case of the person over 80 who was given the vaccine in the City against Covid-19 on February 22 - the day the campaign began - will he have to wait for the 17 May and, from there, another 15 days to get the flu in early June?
--Exactly.
--So, based on what the flu vaccination campaign used to be for this population group, is it going to be delayed compared to other years?
Yes, but the Covid vaccine is obviously a higher priority than the flu vaccine in these times of pandemic.
--Will the entire population group of adults over 80 years of age be expected to have the two doses against Covid-19 before starting the application of influenza vaccines?
- Probably when the flu vaccines are available, we will not start when we vaccinate the last Covid, but we will gradually enter that stage.
Those who were vaccinated at the beginning of Covid, will be vaccinated at the beginning with influenza and so on.
ACE
Look also
Vaccine controversy: why the City didn't start enrolling those over 70
The Province begins to apply the Sinopharm vaccine to children under 60 years of age, not yet certified for older adults
