Varicella vaccine returns
The varicella vaccine Return to the official vaccination calendar earlier than planned. While in the rest of the autonomous communities will be effective as of January 2016, the Community of Madrid has approved a new schedule of vaccines that recovers the antidote against varicella virus for children of 15 months, from next month of December.
This has been agreed by the Governing Council of the Community of Madrid at its meeting on Tuesday. In this way, the children of Madrid will receive the vaccine one month before the rest.
The traveling trip of the varicella vaccine
The varicella vaccine had been withdrawn due to the policy of cuts by the central government due to the economic crisis. The Interterritorial Council of Health agreed this summer to recover this vaccine as of December 2106, but the Community of Madrid is going to advance the measure one year.
Further, those born in 2013 and in 2014, who did not receive the vaccine because of the cuts, they have the guaranteed dose. And this thanks to an initiative of the Ministry of Health that will carry out in November another campaign of uptake to vaccinate with the first dose to children born between 2013 and 2014, who had been out of vaccination against chickenpox.
All children will receive a second dose of reinforcement at 4 years, according to the agreement that has just been approved by the Governing Council. Children who have not passed this disease will be vaccinated at 12 years of age, that is, this second dose will be administered to all children over four years of age when they reach 12 years of age.
Precautions with varicella vaccine
The varicella vaccine is administered subcutaneously, in the upper arm area, usually.
The reactions associated with vaccination are rare and even less so in the second dose, according to experts from the Vaccine Committee of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP). The most common are: pain, itching and redness at the injection site and a low fever between 5 and 12 days after receiving it. A varicella-like rash (small blisters or pimples) with few lesions in the area of the injection can rarely be observed between 1 and 4 weeks after administration.
The varicella vaccine is contraindicated in case of severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis), as in the rest of the vaccines, after a previous dose or known severe allergy to one of its components. The varicella vaccine, being a live vaccine, is contraindicated in general in situations of immunodeficiency (low defenses) and in pregnancy.
Marisol Nuevo Espín