University Clinical Hospital of Santiago
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Head of the Paediatrics Department of the Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago. Coordinator of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Vaccine Safety in Santiago de Compostela and member of the WHO-Europe Vaccine Advisory Committee.
Head of the Immunology Department at the Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago de Compostela (CHUS), Servicio Gallego de Salud (SERGAS)
In recent weeks, the UK Health Safety Agency has detected an unusual increase in infections with Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria. At least 13 children under the age of 15 have died from this pathogen, which is responsible for mild infections but also for more serious conditions such as invasive disease. The Spanish Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases has reported that there have been some deaths in Spain - the Community of Madrid has reported two deaths - and is analysing whether there has been an unusual increase in cases.
During Pfizer's appearance before the European Parliament this week, a company executive responded to the question of whether "Pfizer's vaccine was tested to stop transmission of the virus (SARS-CoV-2) before going to market" by saying "no".
The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved an updated version of the covid-19 vaccine manufactured by Moderna that also targets the omicron variant. It is intended to serve as a booster dose for adults.
Según datos de la OMS y UNICEF, 25 millones de niños no han recibido sus vacunas contra la difteria, el tétanos y la tosferina (DTP) a nivel global. Se trata de la mayor caída continuada en cobertura vacunal en casi treinta años.
In a press release published this week, Moderna has shared the first data on its new bivalent adapted vaccine against Omicron.
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) was responsible for more than 100,000 deaths in children under the age of five worldwide in 2019, a study published in The Lancet estimates. The authors highlight the "urgent need" for vaccines.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) consider it too early for the general population to receive a fourth dose of covid-19 mRNA vaccines. Both agencies do agree that people over 80 years of age should receive it because of their increased risk of severe disease.
The director of the Vaccine Strategy of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Marco Cavaleri, told a press conference on 11 January that "it is not sustainable in the long term to continue giving booster doses every three or four months [to the general population]". Spanish immunologists agree that this is not the right thing to do. In these reactions they explain why.
In the last few days, data, preprints, press releases and even graphs have started to arrive via social media showing how neutralising antibodies against the omicron variant behave. These studies are preliminary and we will have to wait and see how these lab data translate into the real world.
The United States has already approved the vaccination of children aged 5-11 years against covid-19. In Europe, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will decide in the coming weeks on the use of the Comirnaty vaccine in this population. Here is what several Spanish paediatricians think about it.