Starting in October, Catalonia will inoculate babies under six months of age with the vaccine against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes bronchiolitis, and will administer the immunogen against influenza in this case from six months of age.
The Minister of Health, Manel Balcells, and the Secretary of Public Health, Carmen Cabezas, have presented this Thursday at a press conference the news of the vaccination schedule, in which the current vaccine against meningococcus C has also been replaced by another one. new that includes four variants.
Bronchiolitis was one of the three main respiratory epidemics last winter -along with flu and covid-, with a significant care impact in pediatric hospitals since, especially in children under 1 year of age, it can cause complications due to pneumonia and is a reason for income.
Balcells has highlighted that the new vaccine is "a big bet" against a disease that causes "great stress in the system and in parents and children, and that it is expected to favor a "paradigm change", since the minister is confident that "It can greatly lower the pressure of care and improve the health of children."
The frequency of RSV is such that most babies have already been infected before the age of 2, Cabezas explained. Last October, the nirsevimab vaccine, developed by Sanofi and AstreaZeneca, was approved, offering four-month protection.
Cabezas explained that in October, which is when respiratory diseases begin to increase, all babies born from last April will be summoned to primary schools to be vaccinated with this antibody. In parallel, hospitals will inject newborns with the same vaccine in October, in the first 48 hours of life.
As for the flu, which causes 4,000 admissions and eight deaths annually in children under 5 years of age in Spain, children over 6 months of age will be injected for the first time in October (until now only children with pathologies were injected risky).
In addition, as happens every autumn, all adults over 60 years of age and people of any age considered at risk (pregnant, immunocompromised or patients with pathologies) will be vaccinated against the flu.
In the pediatric calendar, the replacement of the current vaccine against meningococcus C -causing meningitis- at 12 months by another tetravalent vaccine, which includes four variants of the same bacterium (A, C, W and Y), also stands out as a novelty.
On the other hand, the vaccine against meningococcus B, which is known by the trade name of Bexsero, remains on the calendar.
In adults, in 2022 the herpes zoster vaccine was already incorporated for the age group of 65 to 80 years; it is now extended to age 90 and beyond.
Herpes zoster is caused by the same virus as chickenpox which, after infection during childhood, remains in the body and reactivates, generally in people over 50 years of age, causing painful skin eruptions and other complications.
The expansion of the new vaccines against RSV, influenza, meningococcus and herpes zoster represents an investment of 33 million euros.
