The Ministry of Health extends the children's flu vaccination campaign to all schools in the Balearic Islands.
Immunization of minors with an intranasal vaccine begins on October 6 in 353 public, private, and subsidized schools.
PalmThe Ministry of Health will begin vaccinating the target population of children in all public, private, and state-subsidized schools in the Balearic Islands against the flu, totaling 353 schools. By island, vaccinations will be provided in 275 schools in Mallorca, 43 in Ibiza, 4 in Formentera, and 31 in Menorca. During the campaign, which begins on October 6 and runs until November 7, vaccination will be offered to approximately 28,000 children enrolled in the second cycle of early childhood education, that is, children born in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Accompanied by the Regional Minister of Education, Antoni Vera, and the Director General of Public Health, Elena Esteban, she emphasized that they have expanded school vaccination to all schools in the Balearic Islands following the positive results obtained in last year's pilot program, in which 43.2% of children were vaccinated, while those who were not included were vaccinated. Schoolchildren.
In educational centers throughout the Archipelago, vaccination of minors will begin on October 6, and the immunization campaign in schools is scheduled to conclude in mid-November, depending on school schedules.
Mobile teams
To carry out this flu vaccination campaign in schools, the Health Service will train 13 independent teams of Primary Care nurses, each made up of two nurses, a Nursing Assistant Technician (TCAE), administrative staff, and drivers.
This initiative seeks to increase vaccination against the seasonal virus among children in the second cycle of Early Childhood Education in schools, given the importance of vaccinating children under five years of age, who are more likely to suffer more severe forms of the viral infection, suffer more complications, and have more hospital admissions.
Children of this age suffer from the flu very frequently, and sometimes very severely. Because, although the mortality rate among children under 15 years of age from the flu is very low, 95% of children who die from this disease are under five years of age. Furthermore, this age group has the second highest rate of hospitalization and ICU admission due to the flu after older people.
More serious complications
Vaccination is also recommended for this group of healthy children because influenza does not cause the most common symptoms of the epidemic disease, such as fever and fatigue. Young children who contract influenza can experience serious complications such as pneumonia, asthma attacks, and ear infections. Furthermore, they are often the main transmitters of the influenza virus to other target groups. This not only provides individual protection for children but also protects vulnerable individuals in their environment from infection.
The vaccination schedule for children is a single dose, and the youngest children, from 6 to 23 months, will be administered an injectable intramuscular vaccine at health centers. The remaining children targeted for this campaign—all students in grades 4, 5, and 6 of preschool education—will receive an intranasal influenza vaccine at schools or their health centers.
During the school vaccination process, nurses who travel to the centers will arrive equipped with a first aid kit to treat possible adverse effects of the vaccines and will stay until half an hour after immunizing the last student to prevent their appearance.