Overcoming the differences in vaccination coverage between regions and expanding the points for administering vaccines by focusing on pharmacies, hospitals, hubs and nursing homes to better reach adolescents and the chronically ill. The new 2023-25 Vaccination Plan provides for it, the first after the Covid era, which was given the go-ahead in the State-Regions Conference. With the new Plan, it sums up the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci, “We want to overcome the inhomogeneities, promote a widespread capillarity of vaccination points and greater proactivity to reach high-risk or difficult to reach population groups”.
Stuck for a year in the State-Regions Conference after the expiry of the previous one, the new plan was given the green light after twice failing to reach an agreement. “The pandemic was an experience that marked a watershed in prevention policies. The plan treasures the lesson: we have vaccinated 50 million people in 6 months, showing that we have tools to use better”, he explains to ANSA Carlo Signorelli, Professor of Hygiene at the San Raffaele University of Life and Health and president of Nitagthe independent group of experts that delivers technical advice to the ministry on the matter.
In fact, it is in continuity with the previous one and does not currently include the introduction of new vaccines but the optimization of those already recommended and offered free of charge. “The Plan – he specifies – stems from the observation that if we have good coverage in children and almost acceptable for the flu shot in the elderly, in adolescents we must do more to raise coverage against HPV and ACWY meningococcus. Just as they need to be improved almost everywhere coverage for herpes zoster and pneumococcus in the frail and over 65”. The main novelty is that the concept of expanding the offer strategies is introduced: or administrations in pharmacies, hospitals, vaccination hubs, by the pediatrician and the family doctor. To better reach chronic or frail patients, the promotion of vaccination through the specialists who treat them is foreseen, under the coordination of the prevention departments.
The goals are to maintain polio-free status by maintaining coverage of at least 95% of children with hexavalent (which protects against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenzae B). Central is then to achieve and maintain the elimination of measles and rubella through trivalent (measles-mumps-rubella). And further strengthen the prevention of cervical cancer by increasing the protection of adolescents against the human papilloma virus (Hpv). The coverage for pediatric vaccinations introduced a few years ago, such as rotavirus, varicella and antimeningococcus B, also needs to be strengthened.
It is also a Plan plus flexible and open to innovation: provides for a vaccination calendar that can be updated annually based on future epidemiological scenarios and scientific evidence. In this way, Signorelli clarifies, “it will be possible to introduce innovations more quickly, for example the monoclonal against the respiratory syncytial virus for all newborns, as already envisaged in other countries”. To do all this, it will be essential for the national and regional computerized vaccination registers to become fully operational.
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