The alarm is sounded in unison by Medici e nurseswhich push the acceleration of flu vaccines.
While vaccinations “proceed slowly”. This is the warning launched by the 39th Congress of the Italian Society of General Medicine (Simg), which will be held in Florence from 24 to 26 November and has already started with online sessions.
“Today we are at a level of incidence that is usually found around the first week of January, so we are almost two months early. Data in these first weeks of November indicate an incidence rate already at 6.6 per thousand inhabitants, with peaks of 19.6 per thousand in the pediatric population from 0 to 5 years of age, which is the main source of diffusion of the infection in the family”, he points out Paul Bonannimember of the group ‘Vaccines and Vaccination Policies’ of the Italian Society of Hygiene (Siti), who attended a session of the congress Simg. This, she adds, “is a cause for alarm and represents an invitation to vaccinate as soon as possible.
While so far we have encountered a slowness in joining the campaign “. Furthermore, due to the limited circulation in the last two years, he adds, “the diffusion could be higher than in the pre-pandemic years, while the abandonment of the distancing measures could favor the spread of all respiratory tract infections, including Covid, the respiratory virus syncytial”.
Given the situation, explain Alexander Rossi, Simg Infectious Diseases Area Manager, “we must protect the fragile population from the flu, i.e. over 65, chronically ill and immuno-compromised subjects, who may face hospitalizations and death”. By vaccinating them, he concludes, we must also “seize the opportunity to propose co-administration: the flu vaccine, in fact, can act as a driver for the Covid booster dose but also for coverage against other dangerous infections, such as pneumococcus or herpes Zoster ”.