More groups advised to get flu jab this year

The Government announced on Wednesday that the two groups most at risk will be given the flu jab prior to the start of the campaign.

From October 13 around 5,000 Nursing Home residents and 10,000 Healthcare Professionals will be vaccinated.

The vaccination campaign will last until December 4 and there are 180,000 doses of flu vaccines available, which is 37% more than in last year.

These are the groups included in the Balearic campaign:

1. People aged 65 or older, particularly those who live in closed institutions.

2. People under 65 years of age with clinical conditions that imply a high risk of complications from the flu or that may cause a decompensation of a medical condition:

a) Children over six months and adults with chronic cardiovascular, neurological, or respiratory disease, including dysplasia bronchopulmonary, cystic fibrosis and asthma.

b) Children over six months and adults with:
- Mellitus diabetes.
- Morbid obesity (body mass index ≥ 40 in adults, ≥ 35 in adolescents, ≥ 3 standard deviations in childhood).
- Chronic kidney disease and nephrotic syndrome.
- Hemoglobinopathies and anemias.
- Hemophilia, other bleeding disorders, and chronic bleeding disorders. Recipients of blood products and multiple transfusions.
- Asplenia.
- Chronic liver disease, including chronic alcoholism.
- Serious neuromuscular diseases.
- Immunosuppression, including primary immunodeficiencies and immunosuppression caused by HIV infection or drugs (including people treated with eculizumab), recipients of transplants and those with complement deficiency.
- Cancer and malignant blood diseases.
- Cochlear implant (performed or pending).
- Cerebrospinal fluid fistula.
- Celiac Disease.
- Chronic inflammatory disease, including rheumatic and autoimmune diseases.
- Disorders or diseases that lead to cognitive dysfunction such as Down syndrome, dementias and others, with special attention paid to people who need regular medical follow-ups or who’ve been hospitalised in the past year.

c) Children and adolescents (6 months to 18 years) receiving prolonged treatment with acetylsalicylic acid, with the possibility of developing Reye's syndrome after the flu.

d) Pregnant women at any time of gestation. Those not vaccinated during pregnancy should be given the flu jab postpartum within 6 months.

e) Children 6 to 24 months who were born prematurely at less than 32 weeks.

f) People of any age (over six months) who are institutionalised.

3. People who can transmit the flu to others who are at high risk of developing complications:

• Workers at primary care health centres and specialist healthcare workers at public or private hospitals and pharmacies with special attention paid to healthcare professionals caring for patients in high-risk groups.
• People who work in geriatric institutions or nursing homes, especially those in continuous contact with vulnerable people. Students in health centre practices.
People who provide home care for high-risk or elderly patients as defined in sections 1 and 2.
• Adults and children who live with people who belong to a high-risk group due to a special clinical condition (see point 2)

4. Other groups for whom vaccination is recommended:

• People who work in essential public services, with special emphasis on the following subgroups:

- Security forces and bodies dependent on the State, with national, regional or local dependency.
- Firefighters.
- Civil protection services. People who work in the health emergency services. Workers in prisons and other detention centres for judicial resolution, including migrant reception centres.

• Workers directly exposed to poultry or pigs on farms or wild birds. The aim is to reduce the chance of a concomitant infection of human and avian or swine viruses and reduce the possibility of recombination or genetic exchange between the viruses.
• Teaching staff and caregivers of schools from zero to five years old.