The president of the Xunta, Alfonso Ruedahas advanced this Wednesday that the Galician health will be “world pioneer“in incorporating into their vaccination schedule the immunization against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

According to clinical studies, to which the Galician president has alluded, this virus infects 90% of babies under two years of age and cause bronchiolitis and pneumonia which are at the origin of 1,000 hospitalizations (with an average stay of 6 days) and more than 10,000 pediatric consultations each year in Galicia.

As published in the New England Journal of Medicine, this monoclonal antibody against RSV avoids around 80% of medical assistance related to the virus and child hospitalizations caused by bronchiolitis or pneumonia.

“In this particularly complex winter, we verified the impact that RSV can have on infants, a population in which practically hospitalizations doubled caused by this virus”, indicated President Rueda.

In light of these figures, based on the recommendations of the technicians from the Department of Health and the Sergas vaccine advisory committee and with the endorsement of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, work began on the acquisition of this vaccine from the first moment in which it was approved by the European Medicines Agency.

The acquisition of this new vaccine will be tendered in the coming weeks by the General Directorate of Public Health. It will begin to be dispensed in autumn of this yearbefore the time of greatest impact of respiratory syncytial virus and in accordance with the advice of health experts.

Likewise, the Council of the Xunta, whose weekly meeting has been brought forward one day due to the visit that Queen Letizia will make to Santiago de Compostela this Thursday, has given the green light to the extension of the rotavirus vaccine, which until now only it was given free to premature babies, to all infants.

This virus causes gastroenteritis that especially affects children: 85% of those hospitalized for this ailment are less than 2 years old.

The incorporation of these two preparations into the childhood immunization schedule will mean an annual investment of €5.1 millionso that the total sum that the Xunta allocates to vaccines will amount to 34 million euros per year.

“Galicia gives a new example of its commitment to immunization and reinforces a child immunization schedule that is already the most advanced and complete in the world,” claimed the regional president.

In this regard, he recalled that in 2022 the vaccine against meningococcus B began to be administered in a pioneering way in Spain to babies from two months of age, protection against human papillomavirus was extended to all male children aged 12 years and quadrivalent influenza was offered to all children under 5 years of age.