Flu Vaccination

In figures, the flu causes around 3,000 deaths and the loss of 60,000,000 working hours annually. It also causes 17.4% of temporary disabilities, which translates into losses of 210,000,000 euros.

INDICATIONS:

All persons over 65 years of age, people living in closed institutions, chronically ill persons (diabetics, chronic bronchitis, renal heart failure...) and services such as police, firemen, health personnel.
The composition of the vaccine normally comprises three strains which are expected to affect the population and reach the place where we live, i.e. they are tailor-made vaccines. The response is maximum at 10-14 days, but the start of the improvement of the defences is already a week.

EFFECTIVENESS:

It has an efficacy in young and healthy people of 70% and in older people this is reduced to 30%, but it reduces the complications produced by the vaccine and mortality. Vaccination reduces the risk of death from any cause by 10% in people over 65.

CONTRAINDICATIONS: Allergy to egg protein.

SIDE EFFECTS:

Reaction: local: Local reactions appear in this 25% of people and disappear in 24 - 48 hours.
General reaction: headache and some general malaise.

THE GOOD IDEA OF ANNUAL VACCINATION: DUTCH STUDY

The advantage of the vaccine increases, reducing mortality by up to 15 - 28% if this measure is repeated every autumn. This is the result of a Dutch study on both healthy elderly people and carriers of chronic diseases. In other words, repeat vaccination increases the protective capacity of the individual.

In this study 26,000 people over the age of 65 were followed for 7 years (in the period 1996 - 2002). It has been found that if the vaccination regime is interrupted, the risk increases dramatically to 25% and this increase if it is left in place, i.e. if there is no return to annual vaccination the benefits disappear almost immediately. This reduction in mortality increases the older the person is, i.e. better off at 70 and better off at 80.

Despite all the scientific evidence, in Spain as a whole, the rate of people over 65 who are vaccinated is around 63%, which is within the European average, with the United Kingdom leading with 71% and Germany with 57%.