Vaccination against flu in the population with 65 or more years in the Algarve reached a rate of 80.6%, exceeding the national average, but still below 75% recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to data released by the Vacinometer , an initiative of the Portuguese Society of Pulmonology (SPP) and the Portuguese Association of General and Family Medicine ().
The Algarve has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, behind only the Northern Region (85.2%) and the Autonomous Region of Madeira (78.6%), and far above the Azores (36%), which register the lowest nationwide value.
Impact of medical recommendation on vaccination
The main reasons given by the respondents for vaccination were the doctor’s recommendation (44.4%), followed by the context of a labor initiative (23%), the own initiative (20%), the notification of the NHS (7.4% ) and knowing that they belong to risk groups (5%).
On this impact of the medical recommendation, Nuno Jacinto, president of APMGF, said that “the numbers speak for themselves,” also highlighting the evolution in the vaccination rate of health professionals themselves.
The official, however, regretted that Portugal fell short of the WHO goal, despite the efforts to disclose:
“There has been a big bet on the publication of the vaccination campaign, but we can do more,” said Nuno Jacinto, adding: “People need to know that the flu time does not end in December and that they can and should be vaccinated in this height of the year, especially risk groups ”.
Vaccination rates in priority groups
In addition to the population with 65 or more years, the data of the vaccinometer indicates that 75.6% of patients with chronic diseases were vaccinated, a value slightly lower than last year (76.6%).
Among the different risk groups, the following vaccination coverage rates stand out:
- 89.5% of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- 74.5% of people with cardiovascular disease
- 73.7% of people with diabetes
- 64.9% of pregnant women (an increase of 4.3 percentage points compared to the previous year)
- 48.7% of health professionals in direct contact with patients, an increase of 3.85 percentage points compared to last season
Already among the population with 85 or more years, the vaccination rate reached 85.1%, and more than half (52.6%) was unaware of the existence of a free dose vaccine for this age group.
Co-administration of the flu vaccine with that of COVID-19 in falling
The vaccination also reveals that 68.2% of people belonging to risk groups chose to co-administer the influenza vaccine and COVID-19, a significantly lower value than last season (81.4%).
Algarve keeps high adhesion, but challenges persist
Despite high adherence to the algarve vaccine, the values do not yet reach the WHO goal, which reinforces the need to continue to sensitize the population, especially at risk groups, to the importance of influenza vaccination throughout the entire flu.
With the Algarve vaccine coverage rate among the highest in the country, experts stress that bet on information and medical recommendation remains one of the main factors for increasing adherence to vaccination in the region and the rest of the country.
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