Children who get a flu shot can avoid the needle with the new intranasal vaccine (if they buy it)

Both parents and nurses who administer vaccines to infants and children have spent years waiting for progress to reach the point of to avoid the pain of needles. One of the hopes is the intranasal administration, so that it is not necessary to puncture the children, in what is an advance that they have talked to us for years.

At the moment there is no alternative for the usual vaccines: all should be punctured except those of the rotavirus that are given orally. However, for a few years there is the intranasal flu vaccine, and this year has been made available to parents.

The Fluenz Tetra vaccine

The vaccine I am talking about is known as Fluenz Tetra. It was presented a few days ago and has the peculiarity of being the only intranasal vaccine that includes four strains of the flu: two of the flu A Y two of type B flu.

The vaccine is given in two halves. First the first half is placed in a nostril, while the child is breathing normally, and then the second half in the other nostril.

The strains included are which WHO has recommended for this year (They are not the same every year) and the vaccine can be administered from 2 to 18 years.

For sale in pharmacies under medical prescription

This vaccine is sold in pharmacies and It is priced at € 37.47. For its sale, a pediatrician's prescription is required (in theory any vaccine purchased at the pharmacy should be prescribed by the pediatrician), and the recommendation is the same as with the injectable vaccine, to be administered to children who are part of the risk group. As we read on the website of the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality:

  • Children (over 6 months) and adults with chronic cardiovascular diseases (excluding isolated arterial hypertension) or lung diseases, including broncho-pulmonary dysplasia, cystic fibrosis and asthma.
  • Children (over 6 months) and adults with:
      - metabolic diseases, including diabetes mellitus.
      - morbid obesity (body mass index ≥ 40 in adults, ≥ 35 in adolescents or ≥ 3 SD in childhood).
      - renal insufficiency.
      - hemoglobinopathies and anemias.
      - asplenia.
      - chronic liver disease.
      - serious neuromuscular diseases.
      - immunosuppression, including that caused by HIV infection or by drugs or at transplant recipients. cochlear implant or waiting for it.
      - disorders and diseases that lead to cognitive dysfunction: Down syndrome, dementias and others. In this group there will be a special emphasis on those people who need periodic medical follow-up or who have been hospitalized in the previous year.
  • Residents in closed institutions, of any age from 6 months, suffering from chronic processes.
  • Children and adolescents, from 6 months to 18 years, who receive prolonged treatment with acetylsalicylic acid, due to the possibility of developing a Reye syndrome after the flu.
  • Is it an effective vaccine?

    The question is whether the vaccine administered intranasally is as effective as the intramuscular. Apparently it is even mmore effective compared to inactivated influenza vaccines. The Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP) talked about this type of vaccine two years ago on this link, and said the following:

    Among the new preparations are the attenuated intranasal vaccine, which has better efficacy data than those inactivated in children and a more comfortable administration than intramuscular. The inactivated vaccines developed in cell culture and the tetravalent ones (with two strains A and two strains B) also stand out. These new vaccines, which are already being used in children and adults in some countries around us (Germany, the United Kingdom and France), have demonstrated their cost-effectiveness in pharmacoeconomic studies in favor of including these vaccines in the calendars .

    So if your son or daughter gets a flu shot, in the pharmacy you have this intranasal vaccine that seems to be more effective and less painful to administer. If you are interested, you just have to talk to your pediatrician to talk about it and make the prescription of the vaccine if he considers it feasible and necessary.

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