Within the framework of the winter vaccination campaign, from the Expanded Immunization Program (PAI) they recalled the availability of important vaccines to prevent serious forms of the main respiratory diseases, in addition to the possibility of accessing doses that were previously only available in the private sector and at high cost.
June 25, 2023 – 12:37 PM
The doctor Hector Castrodirector of Expanded Program on Immunizations (PAI)expressed his satisfaction with the course of the winter vaccination campaign and recalled that there are still many doses of the main vaccines available to prevent severe forms of respiratory diseases.
Likewise, he highlighted the progress that this means for the public health the availability of some vaccines that years ago were only found in the private sector and at a high cost for families, who will now be able to access them completely free of charge.
In this sense, he highlighted the possibility of applying the hexavalent vaccinethat “with a single injection applied to the 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 18 months of age protects children against diseases, including preventing the spread of: diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, haemophiluswhich produces meningitis, pneumonias, hepatitis B with all the consequences that it entails and poliomyelitis with the gravity that represents an infantile paralysis”.
Read More: Hexavalent vaccine: position of the Pediatric Society
Vaccination: hexavalent, available to all equally
Dr. Castro pointed out the satisfaction that means, for example, “seeing images of children in an indigenous population in the Chaco receiving exactly the same vaccine that a child receives here in the Capital.”
“It is available throughout the country, in all vaccination centers, in vaccination centers that are always being updated on the website of the Ministry of Health. To remind the audience in Assumption, the main hospitals also work Saturday and Sunday. Which are? Saint Paul, Worker’s neighborhood, pyta hill, Trinitythe Eighteenth Region there on Avenida Brasil”, he stressed.
“These vaccines have already begun to be applied since last Monday. The first scenario is: represents all children born in april henceforth they are now serving two months, therefore they are receiving their first doses,” Castro recalled.
At the same time, he reiterated that “the children who already received hexavalenteither in the outside of the country and those who return to ours, or in the private sector, can also complete the hexavalent vaccine because we must complete with the same scheme with which we started”.
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Influenza vaccine
With respect to influenzaCastro pointed out that unfortunately in our country we do not have the respect it deserves. “Many say she is a flu nothing else. And there we have to differentiate what is flu from what is common cold”.
“The common cold is a sore throat, a cough, a runny nose, but you continue to carry out your daily activities, perhaps with slightly decreased energy. However, the flu absolutely prostrates you,” said the doctor.
“There is a fever, muscle aches, you are very decayed and also you have congestion, sore throat and possibility of suffering pneumonia. Absolutely different. It will leave you safe like this for at least 7 to 14 days,” Castro said about the effects of influenza.
“There is a high probability of hospitalization if you belong to the risk groups as older than 60 yearsunder 3 years of age, who suffer from diabetes, chronic heart disease, lung disease, or if you are pregnant, “he stressed.
Read More: From the PAI they warn that very few people come to get vaccinated against influenza
Importance of vaccination
Castro highlighted the effort made by the Ministry to start the vaccination campaign “in advance with the aim of vaccinating us all before April 14. It has been shown that in public health at least the third of hospitalizations. It means that the health services are going to take care of other diseases and not postpone as previously happened”, he highlighted.
“We are close to one million one hundred thousand people already vaccinated against influenza. we are around 400 thousand doses still distributed throughout the country. Let’s remember the quadrivalent, the same one that is marketed in the private sector, exactly the same. So, we have to take advantage of it because it is free, it is safe and it is a vaccine that has been installed for a while, ”he highlighted.
Read More: Hexavalent vaccine will be incorporated into the public childhood vaccination scheme
Annual vaccine against covid
Regarding the bivalent vaccine against covid-19, pointed out that “it does not matter if you previously applied the covid vaccine or not. Today, on the recommendation of the WHO and as a strategic element, the vaccination is annual regardless of whether or not you applied the doses before, because it is a new vaccine that includes the omicron subvariants”.
In relation to the application in children, he recalled that “from six years of age onwards the vaccine against covid and from six months of age and up the quadrivalent influenza vaccine”, he said, noting that “the protection starting to be effective two weeks after application”.
He pointed out that vaccination against these diseases is important not only because it is free”but because the vaccine can also drop box if you get to suffer from infection and obviously avoid contagion with the measures that we had mentioned ”.
Read More: Bivalent vaccine: some 20,000 people have already received the annual anticovid dose