Date Published: 04/12/2020
ARCHIVED - 400,000 flu vaccines administered this autumn in Murcia as campaign ends
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
Administrative hitches prevented greater success and must be ironed out before Covid vaccination begins
The flu vaccination campaign of autumn 2020 has now officially ended in the Region of Murcia with 100,000 people more than last year having received their doses of the vaccine, but elderly people registered with the SMS Murcia health service are still entitled to be inoculated if they haven’t yet been able to.
Only around 5,600 doses of the 400,000 which were acquired for this year’s campaign are left over, and in administering them priority will be given to those aged over 65, according to the Health department of the regional government.
There is little doubt that the coronavirus pandemic has contributed to the flu campaign’s success this year, with 58 per cent of over-65s in Murcia having already been vaccinated and the likelihood of that proportion rising to over 60 per cent. This is a significant increase over the 52 per cent reported last year but the stated target of 75 per cent in this age group has not been reached, and among health and medical professionals only 37 per cent have been vaccinated despite the same objective having been established.
One of the reasons for this failure to reach the target is that when the campaign began on 13th October so many people demanded immediate vaccination that doses were in short supply within just three weeks. Hundreds of people have been frustrated as their appointments have been cancelled, and at one point it was reported that internal administration problems exacerbated the problems in ensuring supplies reached the medical centres where the vaccines were in demand.
This resulted in the over-65s being prioritized and others being excluded from the program, but efforts are now being made to ensure that all those who wish to receive the vaccine can do so.
It is important to bear in mind that the same health centres and staff entrusted with the administration of the flu vaccine will be in charge of the coronavirus immunization program when it gets under way early next year; undoubtedly lessons will have been learned from the problems encountered over the last two months.
At the moment there are virtually no flu cases in Spain and there is certainly no sign of the start of the season yet. Normally around 4,000 people die in Spain from flu each year, the majority of them people who were entitled to the free vaccine, but failed to take up the appointment when it was offered to them.
Every year the Spanish health authority produces detailed end of flu season reports showing how many people were vaccinated, how many received hospital treatment, how many failed to turn up for vaccine appointments, how many died, whether those who died had been vaccinated or not, hugely detailed data, which can substantiate the statement made above.