Febbraio 2008 - Volume XXVII - numero 2
Focus
Pediatra di famiglia, Salice Salentino (Lecce)
Indirizzo per corrispondenza: cavallorosario@alice.it
Key words: Heptavalent pneumococcal vaccine, Meningococcal vaccine, Chickenpox vaccine, Measles-rubella-mumps vaccine, Measles epidemy, Meningitidis
Several “new” vaccines are available nowadays and many other are getting ready. Vaccines are important health tools with a mainly high technological level and have a positive result on the individual protection against a lot of diseases. However, the Public Health level imposes a careful evaluation of the “population” effects which may come from an extensive use of these vaccines or from an interference with vaccination programmes of priority importance. In the region of Puglia (Italy), which adopted active and free heptavalent pneumococcal, meningococcal and chickenpox vaccines for all the new-borns, the cover rates for measles, rubella and mumps vaccines are still insufficient, even if the extraordinary vaccination campaign has been adopted after the measles epidemy in 2002-2003. Therefore, an underlying contradiction is going on: alongside the largest public proposal ever made by an Italian region in the “new” vaccine field, there is still the risk that disastrous epidemic events arising from “old” diseases recur.
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Focus
Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Centro Nazionale di Epidemiologia, Sorveglianza e Promozione della Salute, Reparto di Epidemiologia delle Malattie Infettive
Indirizzo per corrispondenza: marta.ciofi@iss.it
Key words: Italian regional policies, Surveillance, Anti-pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Anti-meningococcal C vaccine, Anti-varicella vaccine
A survey conducted in Italy describes the current regional policies on pneumococcal conjugate (PNC), meningococcal C (MEN-C) and varicella vaccination. All regions returned the data: 20 provide free-of-charge PNC vaccination to high risk groups and 9 also to all infants; 17 provide free-of-charge men-C vaccination to high-risk groups and 9 also to all infants; 19 provide free-of-charge varicella vaccination to high-risk groups, three also to all children. Vaccination strategies for PNC, MEN-C and varicella vaccinations are not homogeneous in Italy. Further efforts are needed in order to guarantee immunization of high risk groups and to harmonise policies. To evaluate the impact of Regional policies, surveillance of vaccination coverage and preventable diseases should also be improved.
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