Vacunación en poblaciones especiales en épocas de COVID-19

Abstract

The creation of the Immunization Program, has been one of the strategies with the greatest impact on public health. 
Vaccination would prevent 69 million deaths in poor countries. Influenza and pneumococcal disease cause a higher prevalence of complications in adults with comorbidities such as diabetes, respiratory and rheumatic diseases. Vaccination against predisposing diseases has a beneficial impact on the prevention of mortality, morbidity and disability due to immunopreventable diseases, even so, the prevalence of these diseases continues to be high.  The aim of this study is to know what percentage of patients, who due to special situations are included in the high-risk group, have vaccination against; influenza, PCV13, PPSV23 and COVID-19, to discriminate by vaccine, to know the relationship between vaccination and COVID-19 infection and to know the reasons why this population is not vaccinated.

The study included patients over 18 years of age with diabetes 2, autoimmune connective tissue diseases, chronic kidney disease, coronary heart disease, asthma, COPD, and hypertension, who attended Misericordia Hospital from March to September 2021. The vaccination card data recorded in the medical record were reviewed for all patients.

There were 49 patients, 16 men and 33 women, average age 47 years, 40% were hypertensive, 57% were asthmatic, 4% had heart disease, 40% were diabetic, 5% had chronic kidney disease and 7% had autoimmune connective tissue diseases. When discriminated by type of vaccine, the great majority had been vaccinated against influenza and the first dose against SARS-COVS 2. Only 56% of the patients had the complete vaccination schedule.  30% reported having been infected with COVID 19 and only one of those who became ill was vaccinated with the complete vaccination schedule. One person refused vaccination, citing fear.

The percentage of high-risk patients fully vaccinated in our work is low, being the Influenza vaccine the one they adhere to the most. People with a full schedule of vaccination against COVID-19 had less infection. The number of people immunized against pneumococcus could be underestimated, because its indication is for patients with moderate or severe asthma.