The Public Health Commission will debate this afternoon on the strategy of vaccination against the virus monkeypox, of which Spain has already received 200 units, as well as the second booster dose against covid in the elderly and users of residences.
The general directors of Public Health of the Ministry of Health and of the communities will address these two issues once they finish updating the situation of both the covid-19 pandemic and the monkeypox outbreak that Spain has confirmed 198 cases.
Thus, in accordance with their agenda, they will first deal with the administration of a second reinforcement against covid-19 to those over 80 years of age and users of the residences that, according to what the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, slipped last week, will receive from updated vaccines to new variants that pharmaceutical companies are working on.
“The experts believe, and the Public Health Commission also, that although a second booster dose will be necessary, the most appropriate time for it should be established according to the epidemiological situation, being highly probable later with the arrival of new variant-adapted vaccines,” He pointed out last Thursday in his appearance before the Health Commission of Congress.
In that same appearance, Darias announced that they would arrive “imminently, and it is already imminent”, around 200 Imvanex shots and that they would begin to be administered in accordance with the indications that the public health authorities determine.
vaccination strategy
According to sources from the Commission, the directors general will determine this week, in which they have a double meeting, the strategy that will be applied, whether it will focus only on close contacts or be extended to exposed health personnel.
what yes have already ruled out is to vaccinate the entire population over 40 years of age that it is not against traditional smallpox; At the moment, what is recommended by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is that “if smallpox vaccines are available in the country, vaccination of high-risk close contacts should be considered after a study risk benefit”.
These 200 vaccines, which Spain received yesterday, are the result of “the steps” that the Government has made with another member state outside the centralized purchasing agreement to which it adhered with other countries through Hera, the European Preparation Authority and Response to Health Emergencies, which is the one that “is going to buy and donate” the drugs based on the population.
Although it will also “advance them to the countries with the most cases”, assured the minister, Spain is, after the United Kingdomwhich has recorded 225, the country with the most confirmed positives, a total of 198.
They are followed by Portugal (143), Germany (65), the Netherlands (41), France (33), Italy (22), Belgium (16), the Czech Republic, Ireland, Switzerland and Slovenia (6), Sweden (5), Denmark (3), Norway (2), and Hungary, Gibraltar and Malta (1).
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Added to the vaccines is the antiviral Tecovirimat SIGA, authorized to treat smallpox, monkeypox and bovine smallpox and from which Spain received the first dozens of treatments last week.
treatment against covid
Later, they will also study a new document on Evusheld, AstraZeneca’s express prophylaxis in immunosuppressed people who, despite being vaccinated, do not generate antibodies to achieve an adequate defense against the coronavirus. This is the second treatment available against covid in Spain along with Paxlovid, from Pfizer.