In 2023, Italy was one of the European countries with the lowest vaccination coverage against COVID-19, with around 13%: the elderly and frail patients must be protected
What is scary in our country is not only the bacteria resistant to antibiotics and the too casual use of the latter which give Italy one of the last places in Europe. Over the last year, vaccination coverage against the virus has also remained at very low levels COVID-19although SARS-CoV-2 remains a serious threat to the fragile population: this is demonstrated by the data from the last winter season, in which 10 thousand deaths and 82 thousand hospitalizations were counted in Italy, especially among the elderly and fragile patients, such as sick chronic and immunosuppressed, most of the time not vaccinated.
Indeed, the vaccination coverage rate against COVID-19 in the last year has remained particularly low: in fact just over two million doses have been administered. Also assuming that the recipients were only elderly and frail subjects, the coverage rate in these populations remains at 13%, one of the lowest levels in Europe, as reported by ECDC data.
From this framework, which disregarded the objectives set by the Circular of the Ministry of Health of 14 August 2023, the proposal of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health (SItI) together with Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (SIMIT)who have drawn up a joint document to stimulate some urgent actions to encourage a wider diffusion of vaccination coverage in the next season.
The correct and successful approach involves several different vaccines that can respond to individual vaccination appropriateness, essentially a “right” vaccine for each individual patient, a sort of tailor-made prevention for a large portion of citizens.
THE 5 ACTIONS PROPOSED BY THE SIMIT-SItI DOCUMENT
The document “Proposals for urgent actions for the next COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Italy” drawn up by SItI and SIMIT specialists is intended as a starting point to turn the spotlight on the vaccination campaign of the next 2024-2025 season. The objective to be pursued is to increase vaccination coverage against COVID-19 up to anti-flu levels (minimum 75% in the age target and in subjects at risk).
To help achieve this goal, five actions are proposed to be started as soon as possible:
- define the target populations, timing and methods of carrying out the vaccination campaign by May, possibly also recommending it in the National Vaccination Prevention Plan (PNPV);
- guarantee the supply of supplies to all vaccination supply channels (general practitioners, local and hospital clinics, pharmacies, RSA);
- guarantee a supply of all available vaccines (mRNA and adjuvanted protein) to safeguard the choice of the most appropriate vaccine in every condition;
- undertake training and information actions on healthcare workers involved in the vaccination campaign, also remembering the opportunities for co-administration;
- inform the population on the timing and methods of carrying out the campaign, as well as on the importance of prevention in vulnerable subjects due to age and/or risk condition.
“Incorrect and non-incisive information, together with a less than brilliant organization – specifies the Professor Roberta Siliquini, President of SItI – places us as the European black jersey for the protection of the elderly and frail. We hope that, with everyone’s contribution, the next vaccination campaign will be more effective in preventing a pathology which remains very serious for these subjects. It is also necessary to be able to guarantee equal access to all the different vaccines available with a view to personalized prevention.”
“To date, COVID-19 still represents a threat to the NHS, even though it is no longer an emergency as in previous years – he underlines Roberto ParrellaPresident SIMIT – The numbers relating to deaths and hospitalizations, with a concentration of cases with a moderate and severe degree of severity in older populations and with conditions of increased risk (chronic pathologies, immunosuppression) are eloquent, without forgetting the possible consequences such as Long Covid.
Vaccination remains the most effective tool for preventing the disease and it is important that it is carried out in the initial months of the autumn season before a possible critical period of diffusion of the virus as has already happened in previous years”.
