The World Health Organization (WHO) group of immunization experts said on Tuesday that additional boosters of the COVID-19 vaccine are no longer recommended for the medium-risk group, such as healthy adults under 60.
This recommendation was announced at a press conference by the chair of WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), following the meeting held last week, which decided to simplify priority groups for vaccination against covid-19 , which are now classified as high, medium, and low risk.
Hanna Nohynek explained that the decision to simplify the risk groups for the first time took into account the fact that we live in the “Omicron era, with a reduction in the severity of the disease and with a high immunity of the population, which was acquired by the infection or by vaccination” or even by both factors.
In this sense, experts from different areas of WHO have devised a “different approach to primary and booster vaccination for each of these groups,” added the head of SAGE, pointing out that the update also took into account the SARS virus -CoV – 2 will continue to evolve.
In this sense, WHO advisers believe that the elderly, younger adults with co-morbidities such as diabetes and heart disease, the immunocompromised (HIV and transplant recipients), pregnant women and frontline health workers are among the high priority group.
For this group, SAGE recommends administering an additional booster of the covid-19 vaccine six or 12 months after the first booster dose.
According to SAGE experts, the medium-risk priority group includes healthy adults, generally younger than 50 to 60 years, and children and adolescents with comorbidities, who are recommended primary vaccination and the first booster, but do not follow additional reinforcements, despite being safe are.
The SAGE recommendation places healthy children and adolescents between six months and 17 years of age in the low priority group, requiring countries to assess vaccination in this age group based on various factors, such as their specific context, the burden of disease and their health priorities.
Children with immunocompromised conditions and comorbidities are at higher risk of suffering from severe covid-19 and are therefore included in the high and medium risk priority groups, experts indicate.
SAGE also analyzed global vaccination programs against other diseases, such as tuberculosis, as “there is an urgent need for a vaccine that prevents the disease in adolescents and adults.”
Experts said a “substantial effort” is underway to develop vaccines, with several candidates in clinical trials and at an advanced stage, with the potential to gain regulatory approval within three years.
Source: DN
