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They intend to supplement the national vaccination calendar with four vaccinations: against meningococcus, human papillomavirus, chickenpox and rotavirus. In the future, the option to introduce two more is being considered – for respiratory syncytial infection and herpes. Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports this.
The national calendar of preventive vaccinations is a normative legal act that establishes the timing and procedure for carrying out preventive vaccinations to citizens. Vaccination within the framework of the National Calendar can significantly reduce the risk of disease in children and adults. Currently, it includes routine preventive vaccinations against: whooping cough, measles, rubella, polio, tuberculosis and other diseases.
“Vaccinations not only protect our children from infections at a very tender age, but also lay the foundation for lifelong health. We talk little about the long-term consequences of past infections, and many are not even aware of such threats, but they exist, and they are serious. For example, if the expectant mother has had the flu, the child’s risk of schizophrenia increases in the future. And those people who suffer from shingles in adulthood do not know that this is a consequence of chickenpox suffered in childhood,” explained Leila Namazova-Baranova, chief freelance pediatric specialist in preventive medicine at the Russian Ministry of Health.
Among the population, the attitude towards vaccination is twofold. There are absolute opponents, there are doubters. There is also an opinion that if the risk is not known exactly, then there is no need to further injure the body. Medicine does not stand still; in case of illness, doctors will help.
Meanwhile, pharmacology is not omnipotent, but with an increase in the number of vaccinated people, the likelihood of an epidemic outbreak initially decreases.
In addition, some bacteria and viruses “work” on the sly. Carriers, for example, of meningococcus, of which 10-20% are among adults, may not know anything about their condition and, through contact with small children, transmit the infection to them. Therefore, a number of vaccinations are given in the maternity hospital. Epidemiologists also advise adults not to neglect prevention. With age, resistance to pathogenic effects decreases, which is why the protective barrier needs to be regularly updated. Pregnant women should be vaccinated against influenza and chickenpox, and older people should be vaccinated against pneumococcus.
The problem is that society is not yet ready to calmly accept such conditions. The protesters’ positions are too strong; they are even among doctors.
According to Nikolai Briko, head of the department at Sechenov University, a tenth of specialists openly declare that there is no need for flu vaccinations. Meanwhile, it is not at all harmless, since it causes severe complications on the lungs, nervous and cardiovascular systems, including death.
“There have always been and are people who correctly assess the possibilities of vaccination and its importance, and there is a pool of convinced anti-vaxxers who cannot be convinced by any force. But there is also a third group – those who are hesitant, doubtful, and it is with them that we need to work, providing objective, verified information,” says co-chairman of the All-Russian Union of Patients, neurologist Yan Vlasov.
And the deputy director for science of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor RFN, Alexander Gorelov, warns that without additional immunization, adults suffer from so-called childhood diseases many times more severely. A vaccine, for example, against measles is valid for 10-12 years, then a new one is needed. Rubella kills the fetus during pregnancy if the expectant mother has not been vaccinated. Not only the baby, but also everyone around him is vaccinated against whooping cough to avoid the risk of early death.
It is vital for representatives of the 65+ age group to protect themselves from pathogens of pneumonia and influenza. As the pandemic has shown, mortality among older people turned out to be high not so much because of the coronavirus itself, but because of pneumonia that arose against the background of weakened immunity. Even if it is normal and the person gets sick rarely and mildly, the risk remains. Even in the best of health, you can die simply by stepping on a rusty nail – such is the sad outcome of tetanus.
Refusal to vaccinate is permissible only in two cases – in the presence of contraindications determined by the doctor, and in an acute condition due to illness. If there is neither one nor the other, it is better to get vaccinated. A slight deterioration in well-being is not a harmful consequence, but the body’s response to the action of a weakened pathogen.
