A total of 1,746,721 people have been vaccinated in the 2021-2022 flu vaccination campaign launched by the Regional Ministry of Health and Families, which began on 14 October.
This year’s campaign has been aimed mainly at four large population risk groups: people aged 65 and over, pregnant women, people with chronic pathologies from 6 months of age and healthcare personnel and those belonging to essential professions such as the State Security Forces and Corps, firefighters, etc.
Andalusia was the first Spanish region to launch the flu campaign, starting first with its administration to institutionalised persons in old people’s homes and to health and social-health professionals. Subsequently, it was continued with people over 65 years of age, as well as people with pathologies or risk situations, including pregnant women or during the postpartum period. From November onwards, the campaign was extended to the rest of the essential professions (fundamentally those in the State Security Forces and Corps, firefighters, professionals in educational centres who have direct contact with pupils, etc.).
The vaccination of caregivers and cohabitants (from 6 months of age) at home of the elderly, chronically ill and pregnant women began in December.
For this campaign, 1,786,300 doses were purchased. At the beginning, 1,645,000 doses were contracted, to which a further 141,300 doses could be added in later months. In addition, for the first time, 100% of the vaccines administered are tetravalent, i.e. with two strains of influenza A and two strains of influenza B. In addition, a vaccine with a higher antigen load has been inoculated for people over 60 years of age in nursing homes, in order to optimise the immune response to this particularly vulnerable population as much as possible.
Results in the three main risk groups
The three main risk groups monitored by the Ministry of Health – people over 65, pregnant women and healthcare professionals – have been analysed.
In the over-65 population, 1,070,844 people have been vaccinated, reaching a coverage of 72.8% and exceeding the final figure of the previous campaign (67.9%) by 4.9 points and by 23.8 when compared to the 2018-2019 campaign when coverage stood at 49%.
Among Andalusian healthcare professionals, 59-958 professionals have been vaccinated, representing a coverage of 60.3%. This year and the previous year, with a coverage of 65.2%, have been much higher than in previous years, in the case of 2018-2019 with 28.3%.
As for pregnant women, a total of 35,796 out of 48,464 pregnant women have been vaccinated, equivalent to a coverage of 73.9%, exceeding the minimum target of 60%