Childhood vaccines have meant an improvement in incredible health terms. Thanks to them millions of deaths have been avoided and millions of diseases that have been prevented. Thanks to vaccines many diseases are under control, others close to being controlled and one of them, smallpox eradicated. The last case of smallpox was documented in Somalia in 1977. Since then there have been no more cases.
There is no doubt how useful they are and yet they have always generated suspicions. Around the world there have always been anti-vaccine movements and Spain is no exception. In our country, however, they have it easier, because they have a great ally: the Ministry of Health, that with its inexplicable decisions it only enlarges the doubts, generate distrust and makes our informative work more difficult for the health workers, jeopardizing the health of the entire population.
The withdrawal of the Varilrix vaccine, going to hospital use
Until 2009, two varicella vaccines coexisted on the market, the Varilrix and Varivax vaccine. Both were perfectly valid to be administered to children and adults but, it is not well known why, In October 2009 the Ministry of Health decided to withdraw it and leave it for hospital use only. From it I have heard of everything, that they removed it because it was less effective, that they withdrew it because it could only be administered subcutaneously, when Varivax also allows the intramuscular route, that they withdrew it because it was worse for children, etc.
The truth is that there is no medical reason to make such a distinction between both vaccines and in many European countries the two are still for sale. In fact, many of the parents who travel to Andorra in search of the chickenpox vaccine end up bringing the Varilrix.
The meningitis B vaccine block
Surely you think your son is vaccinated from meningitis, right? Well, it is true. All Spanish children are vaccinated for Meningitis C (well, all who get vaccinated), and some of the pneumococcus (Prevenar), which can also produce it. The fact is that this does not mean that children cannot catch meningitis, because there is not only "C", but there are many other types of viruses. One of them is that of the meningitis B, which is the most common, the biggest culprit for humans to suffer from meningitis.
There has been a meningitis B vaccine for some time, great news. The downside is that before it arrived the Ministry of Health blocked it leaving it for hospital use. The strange thing about it is that of the countries of the European Union, he was the only one who made that decision.
The blocking of the Varivax vaccine, which goes into hospital use
After making in 2009 that the only varicella vaccine that parents could buy was Varivax, the Ministry, through the AEMPS, in a decision that there is no health professional that understands, decided block the sale of the Varivax vaccine so that parents could not buy it. No statement was issued or the reasons were given, and this caused the scientific communities to write a press release asking for explanations and commenting on their position.
Again the maneuver generated social alarm. Calls and parents began to arrive at my center asking what could happen to their son, who was already taking one or two doses, thinking that the withdrawal was because the vaccine was negative for health, or asking what they could do, because they wanted to put the second dose and the child stayed, in a way, "halfway", or directly not yet vaccinated. People did not know the reason and, as I say, many thought it was due to a vaccine safety problem, since when a medication is withdrawn, the reason is usually that the side effects make the medication an unviable solution.
The only words that came from the Ministry, in reference to the Varivax, were devastating, absurd. It was Mercedes Vinuesa, director of Public Health, who a few months ago said that the blockade of the vaccine responds to that in Spain they were getting many more vaccines than in other countries, that there is nowhere to take it, because the logical and desirable of a vaccine is that the vaccinated population is a majority, to control the virus.
He also said that what they were trying to block the vaccine was to move the virus away from the adult population, because that is when it is more dangerous. Again, the argument lacks no evidence, because data from countries that have been vaccinating for decades, such as the US, show that chickenpox has declined in adults and, more closely, data from the Autonomous Communities of Madrid and Navarra , where all children were vaccinated, they say the same thing, that there were fewer and fewer cases of chickenpox in childhood and fewer cases of chickenpox in adults. The logic is overwhelming, when a virus that is spread mainly thanks to children does not run in childhood, it is much harder for it to reach adults. The more vaccinated, the less susceptible children, the less contagion, and the less chickenpox in adulthood.
Now, after a few months without the chickenpox vaccine, what is more logical will happen: that chickenpox will return, as they have pointed out from the AEP. It will return to the communities that had controlled it and will increase in the communities where it was the parents who bought it. The children will suffer again and will be again virus vehicles, favoring adults to suffer from it.
Who needs an anti-vaccine movement with the Ministry of Health we have?
So, by way of summary and conclusion, I can only say this: we don't need too much anti-vaccine movement, because we have it in the same government. A single maneuver, a single block, or that is temporary, helps to generate doubts and distrust, gives vaccines a bad name and it is already known that, in many cases, bad reputation has no solution.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Ministry of Health. Please take into account the health of your citizens, think about disease prevention, take into account the cost and benefit of your decisions and take them with scientific evidence in your hand, that nobody explains about vaccines, as nobody knows Explains about homeopathy. And if in the end they decide to skip everything to the bullfighter and approve things because that day they feel like doing so, at least explain the reasons so that society does not believe that everything is because homeopathy really works or because vaccines have a problem or are harmful.
