Spain’s Andalusia Vaccination Calendar 2020 Includes The Meningococcal Vaccine

ANDALUSIA’S vaccination schedule for 2020 includes recommendations for all ages. Newborns to senior citizens are covered within the plan that was made public yesterday, Monday, by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The vaccination schedule, as explained by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, includes protective measures against 14 diseases. In addition, for the first time in Andalusia, the tetravalent meningococcal vaccine will be included for 12 months and 12 years and is the main novelty of the 2020 calendar in Andalusia.

According to a statement, the 2020 calendar will also includes vaccines that protect against tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, polio, hepatitis B, invasive Haemophilus influenzae type b disease, pneumococcal, meningococcal ACWY serogroups, measles, rubella, mumps, chickenpox, human papillomavirus and influenza. The format for the following year also incorporates new sections referring to the application of vaccines, prescription and registration, as well as data on coverage from the previous year, in order to highlight the importance of these highly relevant points in vaccination.

Regarding the plan that was made public yesterday, the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Jesus Aguirre, said that “the importance of vaccines at all ages of life has been reflected in this new calendar 2020 for all people living in Andalusia and aims to highlight and visualize the importance of vaccination, not only in childhood, but also in adolescence, adulthood and senior citizens. We have to help the correct immunization of the entire population against these vaccine-preventable diseases”.

The counsellor also highlighted the importance of the recommendations for pregnant women to vaccination against influenza and whooping cough, hinting that “vaccination begins before birth, as these vaccines help the future child protect against these infections,”

With regard to Senior citizens, the vaccine against pneumococcal conjugate 13-valent, currently the best vaccine against pneumonia, is recommended to all people as they reach 65 years, a measure that has already begun in Andalusia in 2019, one of the five communities that carry out this extraordinary preventive action.

As Euro Weekly News understands, in addition, the calendar includes the recommendation of vaccination against influenza, tetanus and diphtheria to people with 65 years or more. The chickenpox vaccine will also be recommended for the adult population up to the age of 50 years, provided they have no history of the disease.

As Aguirre concludes, the calendar of vaccinations presented each year in Andalusia is the result of constant work by the General Directorate of Public Health making it possible to be adapted year after year so as to keep up with both epidemiological changes in immunopreventable diseases and scientific and technical advances in the field of vaccines.