20/09/2013 00:00
TW
0

THE Balearic Ministry of Health has acquired 120'000 flu jabs for this winter's campaign. This is 20 percent more than last year, explained Aina Castillo, head of the department. The Minister, who was reporting on a meeting held in Madrid between the central government Minister of Health and representatives from regional government, emphasized that this year “there is no specific alarm” in relation to the flu. The virus is not expected to mutate which means that the vaccine should be effective. Nevertheless, she signalled that the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended to all countries, the preparation of concrete plans to combat flu in case of the “unconfirmed” possibility that it becomes an epidemic, “above all taking into account the similarity that flu symptoms have with Asiatic pneumonia”. To address the issue, the central government Health ministry has prepared, for the first time, a plan co-ordinated between all the self-governing regions of Spain which will intensify the campaign to vaccinate people suffering from respiratory diseases and those over 65 years of age. Castillo stated that Catalonia had decided to lower the age level for vaccination to 60 years, although “without supporting scientific evidence”.
In her opinion, “the ideal” would be that the vaccination campaign should embrace the whole population, because “where there is good prevention, there is no need for health care”. Hence the Ministry has plans to increase the percentage of the population which will finally receive a flu jab. Nevertheless, average figures for the whole of Spain last year, showed that 60 percent of people in high risk groups received the vaccination, whilst statistics differed from island to island in the Balearics: 63 percent in Majorca, 45 in Minorca and 51 in the Pitiusas. Another of the measures that the plan proposes is the creation or reinforcement of “look-out network” that provides regular data on the characteristics of the virus or the degree of incidence in a particular territory. Another measure is to ensure enough hospitals are involved in the scheme for combatting outbreaks, even if it means bringing in specialised units such as Psychiatric hospitals to form part of the “contingency network”.