It is happening in the nursing office in which work parents come with their 12-month-old children wanting to give them the chickenpox vaccine, but without it. They go to the pharmacy to buy it, as it has always been done for a few years, and in the pharmacy they are being told who don't have it and don't know when they will have it, because they are having distribution problems.
It has happened on other occasions that the manufacturer does not have available vaccines, or that the distributor, for whatever reason, is not enough, even lots have been withdrawn because they are dangerous or vaccines because they are not effective. But no, none of them is the problem and that's why we all ask: Where is the chickenpox vaccine? Well stop, with the distribution stopped, because the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS) has decided to stop vaccination because apparently the parents are abusing her (What?).
Strange decision of the AEMPS
In a strange decision no, the following, the AEMPS returns to the load confusing parents and health workers with this measure. I say that he returns to the load because a few years ago he decided that the Varilrix vaccine (the other option, because the only one that could be purchased now is Varivax) was only for hospital use and because a month ago he declared that the meningitis vaccine B, which is yet to come, would only be for hospital use (when the rest of the countries in Europe have not yet spoken out about it), without giving parents the option to pay it and administer it to their children.
Apparently, and although there is still no official statement, they say that "the vaccine is being abused" privately, because it is an unimportant disease. The reality is that if this is the reason, it is most absurd, because in the absence of problems of efficacy or safety, such manipulation of the parents' freedom to decide whether or not to vaccinate is not understood.
The chickenpox vaccine is funded in the autonomous communities of Madrid and Navarra, where it enters through social security and where, apparently, it will not be withdrawn. In the rest of Spain it is only financed for children who reach 12 years without having passed chickenpox, which are a minority.
That father who wants to put it before, that is, from the 12 months that is when you can start the vaccination, had to buy the vaccine at the pharmacy and go to the health center where it was administered. It is unfair, because as I say, there are communities in which parents do not pay it, but the fact that they could go to the pharmacy to buy it allowed a large number of children to be vaccinated, despite not being part of the calendar at ages Early Now that possibility no longer exists.
Mild or banal disease?
If the reason is that chickenpox is considered a mild or banal disease, the argument is quite absurd. It is true that it is a disease that in most cases goes without major complications, but nobody takes it away at home at the week and there is always a small percentage of children who have chicken poxes with associated pneumonia or even with encephalitis. Further, if it was so banal, it would not be necessary to administer it at age 12, and yet it is done, precisely to prevent the disease from being caught in adulthood, when the side effects are much more aggressive.
However, not all adults who have not had the disease are vaccinated, and could be protected or vaccinated, or by vaccinating young children, who are the ones who move the disease and spread the most. That is, vaccinating children makes the virus can be controlled and that neither children nor adults can catch the disease. This happens especially in Madrid and Navarra because there is a high percentage of vaccinated children. In the rest of Spain it is more difficult to happen, because it is estimated that about 40-50% of children are vaccinated, a percentage that will decrease with the blockage of the AEMPS.
Is it a recommended vaccine?
Whenever the parents ask me in the consultation if it is a recommended vaccine I answer the same: "The decision must be taken by the parents, since it is you who buy it." I give the information, I explain for what it is, the possible side effects, I tell you that there are two doses and that with the two doses it is still possible to catch chickenpox, but it is almost certainly a much milder chickenpox than they would take if they were not vaccinated, and I tell them the price it has.
I I put it on my children when they were 5 and 2 years old, because Guim was soon to be born and we feared they would get chicken pox and spread it while still being a baby. Being able to put on only after 12 months, vaccination of siblings and other children indirectly protects the baby, who still cannot be vaccinated. When Guim was 12 months old we also put it on.
Buy them in Andorra or France?
Some parents are opting, before the Spanish blockade, to buy them in Andorra or France, where they also cost considerably less (about € 25 less per vaccine). This is illegal. It is not allowed to buy medicines in other countries, so everyone assumes the risks and consequences of doing so. Some will tell me "now, but if this is illegal and blocking the vaccine in Spain is immoral, what do we do?", And I will answer you with one of those gestures of shrugging and nodding.
Communiqué of the scientific societies
The main scientific societies, as is logical, have spoken about it protesting a decision they don't understand. I leave you below with the joint note of three societies: Vaccine Advisory Committee of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP), Spanish Association of Vaccination (AEV) and Spanish Society of Preventive Medicine, Public Health and Hygiene (SEMPSPH).
"VARICEL VACCINE SUPPLY IN SPANISH PHARMACY OFFICES" The scientific societies most linked to the use of vaccines express our strangeness and concern about the shortage of varicella vaccines that are being produced in many Spanish pharmacy offices. In Spain two varicella vaccines are registered. One of these vaccines (Varilrix®) is restricted to hospital use, in our opinion in an unjustified way, especially after the recent modification of its data sheet. The other vaccine (Varivax®) was available until recently at the pharmacy offices. At the moment, we have no official knowledge, that is, on the part of the Ministry of Health or the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), of any circumstance that explains this shortage, as it could be an eventual production problem, of distribution or security. The shortage is occurring in most of the autonomous communities, although not in all. The Varivax® manufacturing laboratory reports that it has lots of vaccines available, but that are withheld. We hope that the Ministry of Health and AEMPS will express themselves as soon as possible and, above all, that this anomalous and strange situation can be ended. Vaccination against chickenpox in early childhood, that is, since 12 months of age, has proven beneficial in numerous studies and countries with universal vaccination, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Uruguay, as well as European countries such as Germany , Greece, Latvia and some Italian regions. In the rest of European countries, the vaccine is available at the pharmacy offices for free prescription. In Spain, only two autonomous communities (Madrid and Navarra) and the autonomous cities (Ceuta and Melilla) vaccinate children free of charge in the second year of life. The effectiveness data reported by the communities of Madrid and Navarra, where universal vaccination has been implemented since 2006 and 2007 respectively, are spectacular. In the rest of the communities it is vaccinated from 12 years old, age at which 90% of children have already passed chickenpox naturally (up to 15% of cases with some type of complication) or have been vaccinated following the recommendations of the CAV of the AEP. With this shortage in communities without funded vaccination, those people who decide their employment are deprived of the use of this medical device and its demonstrated benefits following the recommendations recommended by their doctors.
Let's hope that the AEMPS pronounce itself and explain the inexplicable, because if as a father I cannot understand the decision, as a nurse I still understand it less.
