It can cause pain at the injection site, fever, discomfort or nausea But it is “the best tool” to prevent an “important public health problem”, experts insist Vaccination coverage in the target population is far from the objectives set by the health authorities “Next year they won’t catch me,” jokes Fernando. At 54 years old, he does not belong to any risk group contemplated by Health, but he decided to get vaccinated against the flu at his workplace because “it is what doctors recommend”. Fernando got vaccinated on Tuesday. 48 hours later, on Friday, he had a “full-blown flu.” The symptoms began with discomfort in the arm and continued with a sore throat, sneezing, runny nose, muscle pain and a fever of 38. When he returned to the medical service, the The nurse did not hesitate to attribute the symptoms to the vaccine. “We have had more cases,” the health worker told her. She gave him paracetamol and recommended that he go home if he continued to feel sick. “It is still early to say because we have only had one week vaccinating against the flu, but perhaps we are seeing a little more reaction, of local pain in the arm, although everything is normal”, assures Patricia Ruiz, a nurse at work. In addition, she explains to NIUS, it is possible that Fernando’s reaction to the vaccine coincided with a cold “because now there is a lot of catarrhal process”. In any case, it must be made very clear, he stresses, that one does not get infected with the flu from the vaccine, since it only contains part of the virus or a pathogen or so weakened that it is unable to infect. Something that is also confirmed by Amós García, from the Spanish Association of Vaccinology, who assures that “the flu vaccine is impossible to reproduce the disease because it is an inactivated vaccine”. So “if you have the opportunity to access the vaccine, even if you are not a risk group, it is always better to prevent than to cure,” says Ruiz. According to Jaime Jesús Pérez, new president of the Spanish Association of Vaccinology, “no Until now, unexpected adverse effects”. What is contemplated is that the flu vaccine can cause a local reaction in the injection area with pain, redness or inflammation and other more infrequent effects such as: Fever. Malaise. Body aches. / muscle. Headache. Nausea. “The best tool” Reactions that, in any case, indicate Health, are “considerably less serious than the symptoms caused by the real disease and, above all, than its possible complications in the most vulnerable”. Because effects such as decreased platelets or certain neurological complications “are exceptional,” says the Vaccine Advisory Committee of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics. The flu vaccine is “the best tool” to prevent an “important public health problem” with high morbidity and mortality, but vaccination coverage in the target population is still far from the objectives set, say the experts responsible for the study Confidence in vaccination against influenza in Spain: reticent discourses and attitudes in the general population. Each year, the WHO publishes the composition of the vaccine for use in the northern hemisphere, so the available vaccines against influenza include three or four viral strains selected annually based on their probability of circulation. The effectiveness of these vaccines is variable, influenced by various factors, such as the coincidence between the circulating strain and the one included in the vaccine, antigenic drift during the flu season, and the age and health status of the vaccinated people. Even so, the evidence shows that vaccination has a great impact in the prevention of serious illness and death, as well as in preventing seasonal flu and its complications, says the report prepared by the General Directorate of Public Health and the Working Group of Influenza from the Ministry of Health. So why this reluctance to vaccinate against the flu? The study points, mainly, to ten possible causes: The conviction that the flu was a common and low-danger infection. The timing of vaccine efficacy. Bad vaccination experiences, both among the general population and among health professionals, related to adverse reactions, weak or ineffective protection, and/or doubts about the quality of the vaccines. The adverse image of pharmaceutical laboratories. The variety of criteria of the autonomous communities in relation to the identification of risk groups. The indeterminate concept of risk group or target group. (Why nurses yes, but teachers no?). The “fractures” in the prescriptive discourse of doctors. Influenza vaccine distribution logistics: deficits complicated vaccination planning and promoted dropouts and demotivation. The flu vaccine versus anti-flu drug campaigns that trivialize the disease. The low awareness that one is not only a receptor of the flu, but also a transmitter and that the vaccine, together with personal protection, protects other people with the that are related. Seven out of ten people in the target group were vaccinated against the flu last seasonAccording to the specialized portal Statista, flu vaccination coverage in the adult population aged 65 and over experienced a sharp decline from 2006 to 2020, to around 54 .5% during the 2019-2020 season. However, in the three following vaccination campaigns, this trend was reversed, reaching the highest point in 2021-2022 with 69.4% of the population belonging to that age group vaccinated against influenza. A percentage that, in any case, is far from the 93% of Spaniards over 12 years of age who have at least one dose of the covid-19 vaccine. Percentage flu vaccination.StatistaFor all these reasons, it is important, the experts consider, to develop good communication strategies and work with health professionals to increase the number of people vaccinated against the flu. Especially at a time with an increasing incidence of the virus. According to the weekly report of the Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance System (SiVIRA), the flu rate in Primary Care has increased slightly compared to the previous week, especially in the group of 15 to 44 years of age. In the last recorded week for which data is available, in week 39, there were 2,722 declared cases, five times more than the same week in 2021, when 529 positives were declared. In addition, Health recalls, this year practically all hygienic measures against covid-19 have been eliminated, so “it is likely that the coronavirus pandemic and the flu epidemic will coincide and that complications will increase in risk groups for both diseases can be especially harmful. The risk of death is more than doubled if a person falls ill with the flu and covid, which can trigger a significant healthcare overload.