The Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Sentinel Network, has detected a total of 2,141 cases of influenza reported in the first week of 2008, with a rate per 100,000 inhabitants of 131.3 and an epidemic index of 0.90 (Normal Incidence). This represents about 241 fewer cases registered than in the same period of the previous year. However, the autonomous department predicts a slight increase in the following dates of this month of January.
In the first week of 2007, 2,382 cases had been reported, with a rate of 146.1 and an epidemic index of 1.19, "also normal incidence", according to the Ministry. These data confirm a slight decrease compared to the figure recorded in the same period of 2007. In the following seven days of the year, whose data are yet to be counted, "a slight increase in the declared cases is expected, always within normal parameters", insists Health.
On the other hand, the number of influenza cases reported throughout the year 2007 was 100,381 cases, which represented a normal incidence. Throughout 2006, 94,275 cases were reported, which also represented "a normal incidence", specifies the autonomous department. The Ministry of Health has administered the vast majority of the vaccines acquired for this campaign.
In total, 279,000 doses against influenza and another 30,000 against pneumonia caused by streptococcus pneumoniae were acquired, the latter intended for people over 65 with a chronic disease or who are in elderly centers.
The application of influenza vaccination is an important Public Health measure as it reduces the incidence of this disease, and therefore the impact that, each year, has on the population. Vaccinating people in risk groups significantly reduces hospitalizations and the appearance of serious complications and deaths caused by them.
Influenza is an acute infectious disease of the respiratory tract caused by a virus. Among its most important characteristics is its high capacity to transmit from one person to another. It usually occurs in winter and in an epidemic form, that is, each year we face a season in which there may be a great activity and circulation of the influenza virus, predominantly between the months of November to March.
Influenza is an important health problem, both for the mortality it can cause directly or indirectly, as well as for the complications it can cause and the economic and social costs it originates. The virus causing this disease has a high capacity to suffer variations in its surface antigens, which are proteins that have special relevance in the infection capacity of the virus and against which humans produce antibodies that protect us, explains the Ministry in a note.
"Currently, there are influenza vaccines with high effectiveness and safety to control influenza, but due to this high capacity of influenza viruses to vary year after year, the vaccine must be updated each new season and administered annually", specifies the regional department of Health.
RISK GROUPS
The influenza vaccine is specifically recommended for groups with a high risk of developing serious complications as a result of infection by the virus: people aged 65 or older and of any age with chronic cardiac, pulmonary or kidney diseases, diabetes, immunosuppression or severe forms of anemia. In addition, it is advised that children and adolescents who have received long-term treatment with aspirin, and who may also have the risk of becoming ill with Reye's syndrome after the influenza season, also join the vaccination campaigns.
In the same case of risk situation would be people with close or frequent contact with any of the high-risk groups already defined: health and volunteer personnel, cohabitants; as well as workers who provide essential community services, such as police and firefighters.
VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS
Vaccination is the most effective tool to prevent influenza, as it provides protection against infection and also reduces the severity if it has already occurred, says the Ministry of Health in the statement.
"The vaccine", adds the note, "confers protection against the disease to 80 percent of vaccinated people". In addition, in older people, it reduces the need for hospitalization due to influenza by 70 percent, also reduces respiratory complications due to this disease by 90 percent, and the risk of death from complications by 80 percent.
On the other hand, according to Health, there are studies that show that, in older people vaccinated against influenza, mortality from all causes is reduced by 50 percent. But the Ministry warns that "a frequent mistake is to believe that the vaccine can cause the disease. It is not true, what can happen is that a vaccinated person contracts the disease because they were already incubating it when they received the vaccine. In that case, although the remedy does not prevent the appearance of symptoms, it does make them have a much milder course". For the autonomous department, "in many other cases we call influenza any catarrhal process or common cold".
Finally, Health points out that the Vaccination Program of the General Directorate of Public Health carries out each year a campaign to inform the population and encourage vaccination against influenza among the population at risk and among professionals who are essential for the community.
ACN Press