immunizations Its application reduces hospital costs and absenteeism
Scientific research has made it possible disease until many serious years, and even produced the death of those who were suffering, disappear or see reduced their symptoms. This is possible thanks to vaccines, the application not only improves the quality of life of people, but also helps reduce pharmaceutical spending and the derivative of hospital admissions and school and work absenteeism. However, it is the less paradoxical that there is no single immunization schedule for Spain, and that none of them are included as common ailments today as the flu or chickenpox.
Different calendars, why?
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With a first dose adequate levels of antibodies, which remain in the body thanks to the booster, according to Manuel Carnero, medical specialist in the area of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University Hospital "Virgen de la Victoria 'are reached Malaga. So from childhood immunity artificially it is acquired to prevent long-term illness.
Although the differences between the different vaccination schedules are not very substantial, the secretary of the Advisory Committee on Vaccines of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics and physician Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid, Francisco Giménez, advocates unifying criteria, taking into account "we are in a homogeneous country" where the characteristics that may occur in AndalucÃa do not differ much from there in Catalonia and, therefore, "not logical" in a community are vaccinated against a disease to a certain age and in another, a different.
An example of immunization schedule is as follows:
Newborns: Hepatitis B (in the hospital, at birth, although some regions put it at 2 months of age or even later).
At 2 months: Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) (causes meningitis); Diphtheria / tetanus / pertussis; Hepatitis B (in the case of the children of mothers with hepatitis B will receive the second dose of vaccine per month of life); Poliomyelitis (polio); Meningococcal C (also causes meningitis).
At 4 months: Hib; Diphtheria / tetanus / pertussis; Polio; Meningococcal C.
At 6 months: Same as 2 months.
At 15 months: Hib; Diphtheria / tetanus / pertussis; Polio; MMR (mumps / measles / rubella) (special risk children receive measles vaccine at 9 months first).
At 6 years: diphtheria / tetanus / acellular pertussis; Polio; MMR.
At 11 years: MMR (only for children who have not received two doses in advance).
At 12: Hepatitis B (three doses: after the first, second and third month to six months).
At 14 years Tetanus / Diphtheria (adult).
Adults: Tetanus / Diphtheria; Acellular pertussis (booster every ten years).
Including vaccines in calendars
From the Spanish Association of Pediatrics a number of recommendations are made for inclusion in a new vaccination schedule (the latter was implemented in 2001).
The ASP has been calling the Administration include varicella vaccine, or at least allowing it free access for children between 12 and 15 months, since, at present, only used in hospitals; the use of combination vaccines, which are already marketed, so that with one puncture would fight up to six diseases (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b and hepatitis B); applying at age 14 of a vaccine for adults that includes diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, since on the calendar only includes the first two complaints, and the other against pneumococcal, to immunize children under 2 years versus meningitis, sepsis, sinusitis, ear infections or pneumonia.
This vaccine has already been successfully introduced in the calendar of the United States, achieving the reduction of invasive disease caused by this germ in 87.3%.
84% of parents said they vaccinate their children but had to pay (the pneumococcus costs 84 euros). Pediatricians and pharmacists, 90 and 80%, respectively, are also in favor of vaccinating, rather than using antibiotics, and 90% of those responsible for nurseries agrees with vaccination.
Success calendars
The success of vaccines, more effective and safe, makes the number of illnesses fall considerably.
Data from the National Epidemiology Center who had collected 220,000 children with measles and 14 years later only totaled 158 cases in 1986. The same goes for rubella (in 1984 there were 150,000 cases, while in 2000 they were 345) and mumps (286,000 patients in 1984 to 9,000 three years ago). Therefore, Manuel Carnero believes that "there is no reason to stop vaccinating a child" and failure to do so could be considered "as a form of mistreatment by omission."
For his part, Secretary of the Advisory Committee on Vaccine AEP points out that "vaccination coverage in Spain are leading the world", surpassing even countries like the United States. Thus, 95% of children meet their immunization schedule. It should be noted, according to Francisco Gimenez, the efficacy of these vaccines "is always above 90%."
The modification of the schedule occurs every two or three years and, a priori, responds to scientific criteria, ie review recommended the introduction of vaccines that have appeared in that time frame or modifying existing explains specialist in Preventive Medicine of the University Clinical Hospital of Malaga, adding that, although the issue of vaccines may represent a "business" for laboratories, the benefits for citizens involved in its implementation are significant. Indeed, although the new vaccines can be expensive, "generally, their inclusion in the calendar involves reducing the cost."
Flu Shot
Flu, while not the most serious disease, it is one of the most common, although not included in the official calendar. In Spain, about four million people annually suffer the symptoms of the disease (fever, sneezing, coughing and headaches, muscular and throat), preventing them from developing normal social activities.
Sometimes, in the most virulent cases, hospitalization is required, and can even cause death of the patient if derived in other processes such as pneumonia. In the Spanish territory causes the death of about 2,000 people a year. Therefore, vaccines that early fall given free health services, help lessen its effects.
In order that the vaccine responsible for gripe- virus called 'influenza'- be increasingly effective year, health authorities have coordinated work of hundreds of laboratories worldwide. The serum yields positive effects produced by 80% of cases and usually the symptoms are minor when the patient is vaccinated. In fact, the Ministry of Health claim that "vaccination is the primary method of prevention against influenza."
These data lead to public health to spend around 18 million euros annually in this vaccination program, according to estimates by the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR). According to this organization, the cost is "balanced" given the benefit of it in terms of individual and collective health and the savings in lost working days caused by the flu.
Moreover, an official of Aventis Pasteur, one of the leading companies in the field of vaccines, says doctor visits are reduced by 44%, and therefore also the pharmaceutical spending and the number of days lost work decreased by 43%. The latter involves, in its view, "preventing the decline in productivity and labor accidents associated with impaired alertness caused by this disease, as well as the elimination of bad mood linked to flu symptoms.
allergies
Another application with vaccines is to alleviate the symptoms experienced by allergy sufferers and that in Spain there are more than eight million people, of whom six million are affected by respiratory allergies, as is the case of producing fever or asthma, according to the president of the Spanish Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (SEAIC), Antonio Pelaez.
In this regard, a member of the SEAIC, the allergist Nicolas Rubio, reported that allergic population in Spain has doubled in the past two decades, due to air pollution, the increase in the consumption of snuff or lack of childhood exposure to germs, while highlighting the application of vaccines reduced by 92% of cases, "if not more", the symptoms of these diseases, reaching even a cure. "The results are spectacular," he says, especially allergies to dust mites, pollen, bees and wasps.
For his part, Dr. Thomas Chivato, belonging to the Committee of Immunotherapy of the Spanish Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, says that due to developments in vaccine given at this time, an allergy can be noticed "a marked improvement" in only seven to ten weeks, rather than three or four months so far were being usual.
Less than 10% of allergic are vaccinated Despite these advantages, less than 10% of the eight million allergy sufferers in Spain are vaccinated, which is in a "very high" percentage, acknowledged Chivato, lack of information .
In fact, he says a European study revealed that "60% of Spaniards affected by respiratory allergies is not informed of vaccines and known that this treatment can solve their problems." It also states that the long waiting lists is another factor affecting nine out of ten allergy not vaccinated. For children between 6 and 14 years with allergic rhinitis, treatment with immunotherapy can reduce the development of the disease by 60%.
Unlike other vaccines indicated for allergies they are not free, so patients have to pay 40% of their cost. All this despite the SEAIC takes suing the Administration for over fifteen years place more emphasis on these diseases ago, since, according to its president, "the elaborate studies show that a severe allergic rhinoconjunctivitis prevents the patient live their lives with normal".
Thus, public health would assume the cost of vaccination and increasing the number of allergists, since in Spain there are only 450 doctors to serve more than eight million people with allergies, implying a ratio of a specialist for every 150,000 inhabitants, upon the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) is one doctor for every 50,000.
"Disproportionate" increased spending for medicines
"The poorly controlled allergic patient comes out much more expensive to the public purse that is controlled," said Nicolas Rubio, adding that a bad treatment involves a "disproportionate" use of medications to alleviate the symptoms of allergies. In the case of asthma, medication expense has experienced a sharp increase in recent years, rising from 72.12 million euros in 1989, to nearly 270,460,000 estimated at present.
In this regard, the president of the SEAIC says that this year, due to heavy rains during the winter, spring will be "very intense", resulting in an increase in patients. "These data will be reflected both in the sale of antihistamines, such as caring for patients in consultations of allergy and asthma emergency medical centers," he says.
international travelers
The increased number of travelers going to exotic or tropical countries causes many people are in contact with different diseases to their usual environment, so it is useful to know the preventive measures, required by the Ministry of Health and Consumption.
In recent years has increased the risk of not only ailments cosmopolitan distribution, such as tuberculosis, hepatitis, AIDS or sexually transmitted diseases, but also those arising from changes in climate, food and tropical (yellow fever and typhoid).
We must make special mention to the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS, for its acronym in English), or SARS, which has already killed more than a hundred people and has infected around 2,670 in twenty countries. In Bilbao a possible case of the disease was located; however, they analyze this person did not find the presence of the coronavirus responsible for the common cold and, apparently, this pneumonia; In short, the prognosis for this patient has already been discharged, is "total cure, without any sequel, absolutely can resume a normal life." The first cases appeared in Hong Kong, China, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to expand. Initial symptoms include high fever, muscle aches, headaches, diarrhea, sore throat and breathing difficulties.
The recommendations from WHO focus on not travel to Southeast Asia as well as maintain good personal hygiene, wash hands after sneezing, ventilate enclosed spaces, avoid visiting crowded places with poor ventilation and seek medical advice quickly if symptoms of respiratory tract infection are developed. Given this, can only hope that medical research will tightening the cordon sanitaire to find an efficient antidote. For now, US researchers say a vaccine used to treat viral lung infections in pigs could help develop a cure for SARS in humans.
