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Donostia– Osakidetza extended the flu vaccination campaign until 31 December, which was due to end on 5 December and has reached 299,912 people to date, 80% of whom are over 65 years old.
The Ministry of Health explained yesterday that this decision met the interest of reaching more citizens belonging to at-risk groups, such as the over-65s, women with chronic diseases and pregnant women.
The campaign began on October 24 and to date, 299,912 people have been vaccinated, a figure similar to that obtained last year at the same time. Of this total, 80% was administered to people over 65, which implies a coverage rate of 46.6% in this group. This year, more health professionals were vaccinated, 11% more than at the same dates in 2017.
According to Osakidetza, influenza activity has not changed compared to last week and remains at a rate of 21.1 cases per 100,000 population, which is below the epidemic threshold this year at 55.7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. In the primary care network, 156 consultations for an influenza-like illness were recorded, with a higher incidence in Gipuzkoa.
To date, eleven people have been hospitalized for influenza, including nine serious ones. 75% of those included in risk groups were not vaccinated.
Osakidetza advises to make responsible use of health resources in case of ascertainment of flu symptoms, in order to avoid to wait unnecessarily to receive care and to avoid saturating the health system.
In this sense, remember that influenza is an embarrassing, but benign disease in the healthy population and that it is not treated specifically, so the rest and ingestion of fluids abundant in antipyretics to stop fever are the main recommendations.
Health authorities insist that the vaccine is, for safety, the most effective tool to fight the flu and avoid its complications. – Efe
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