In a press release published this Thursday, the High Health Authority (HAS) indicated that it recommends vaccination against influenza in all children from 2 to 17 years of age. A decision that comes as the flu epidemic is gaining momentum in France, after a relative calm in January. Currently, all metropolitan regions, with the exception of Normandy and Hauts-de-France, are in the epidemic phase.
Previously, influenza vaccination was recommended only for people older than 65 years, people with comorbidity, and pregnant women. A hearing that, therefore, the HAS has decided to expand, after being seized by the General Directorate of Health. But how does the authority justify this decision?
• Protect children
Vaccinating children against the flu is, above all, protecting them. Although the disease presents risks mainly in the elderly, children are not immune to complications if we are to believe the figures reported this Thursday by the HAS.
“Children under 15 years of age, and more particularly those from 2 to 5 years of age, are overrepresented among the cases of flu syndrome treated at the city’s medical office,” the authority details.
Children under 2 years of age represent 9% of the patients who consult for flu syndrome, while in the general population they weigh only 2%. For children from 2 to 5 years old, this difference is even greater: they represent only 5% of the population, but 19% of medical consultations in the city.
Finally, in its latest influenza-related epidemiological bulletin published on Wednesday, Public Health France noted “a sharp increase in the number of emergency room visits for influenza or flu-like syndrome and the number of hospitalizations after the passage; This trend was observed in all age classes and particularly marked between 15-44 years (+93%)”.
There are five vaccines against influenza in children available in France, and “they show good efficacy and tolerance (…) against influenza in children aged 2 to 17 years,” says the HAS.
• Alleviate congestion in pediatric hospital services
Protecting children against the flu will also relieve congestion in pediatric services, says the High Authority for Health, which have been put to the test this winter. Faced with a triple epidemic -of flu, but also of Covid-19 and bronchiolitis-, several hospitals resigned themselves to transferring several very young patients to another department in December.
“This vaccination would reduce the burden of influenza in pediatric departments,” says the HAS.
Especially since, in terms of medicine in the city, the youngest are overrepresented in emergency visits due to flu syndrome. For example, children ages 2-5 account for 23% of emergency room visits for flu-like illnesses, while they represent only 5% of the population.
• Protect vulnerable groups
Finally, vaccinating children against the flu will protect their elders.
“The HAS estimates that this vaccination in children between the ages of 2 and 17 – who constitute the reservoir of influenza – would limit the spread of the disease among the population and the elderly,” underlines the press release.
According to the Institut Pasteur, schools are thus part of the places that favor “the spread of the flu virus”. This same argument had already been mobilized at the height of the Covid-19 epidemic, to justify the opening of vaccination to the youngest.
To generalize vaccination among the youngest, the High Health Authority “underlines the need for reimbursement of seasonal flu vaccines for children from 2 to 17 years old”, and proposes “a preferential recommendation for the intranasal vaccine” because it is easier to manage in the youngest.
Source: BFM TV
