Xinhuanet Beijing, August 28th (Wang Kunshuo, Zhang Xinxin) Every autumn and winter, the flu will "arrive as scheduled", but its severity is still underestimated. At the 2019 academic exchange meeting on seasonal influenza prevention and control strategies sponsored by the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association and supported by Sanofi Pasteur, experts attending the meeting reminded that influenza vaccination is the most effective means to prevent influenza, which can significantly reduce the risk of influenza and serious complications among vaccinators.
Influenza is not a common cold, and its harm is underestimated.
As an acute respiratory infectious disease, influenza is not a common cold. Influenza virus directly attacks human respiratory system, which can cause many serious life-threatening complications such as viral pneumonia, secondary bacterial pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, shock, disseminated intravascular coagulation and so on.
Influenza virus is changeable, and it will appear in a brand-new appearance every winter, causing seasonal epidemic. Influenza and its complications have always been seriously underestimated by the whole society. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the seasonal epidemic of influenza can cause 290,000 to 650,000 deaths worldwide every year.
Feng Luzhao, Director of Respiratory Infectious Diseases Department, Infectious Diseases Department, China Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Feng Luzhao, director of the Respiratory Infectious Diseases Department of the Infectious Diseases Department of China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that the disease burden of influenza is very serious, and the incidence of influenza in the whole population can reach 5%-10% every year, and children can reach about 20%.
It is understood that the high-risk population of influenza is divided into two categories: one is the population with high risk of serious complications of influenza, including the elderly over 60 years old, children aged from school age to 5 years old in June, pregnant women and patients with chronic diseases; The second category is people with high exposure risk, including school students and medical workers.
Feng Luzhao said that the current statistics of the number of cases and deaths can not fully reflect the true level of influenza, and the number of influenza patients diagnosed is less than the actual number of cases. At the same time, it also involves the attribution of death caused by influenza.
"The flu will cause serious complications such as pneumonia, and it will also aggravate other chronic diseases of patients themselves. These patients who died will not be classified as flu deaths, but will be blamed for their complications, such as pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes complications, etc." Feng Luzhao said.
Strengthening vaccination awareness and improving vaccine value cognition
At present, vaccination is the most economical and effective intervention measure for influenza prevention and control, and vaccination for high-risk groups is recommended first.
Dr. Lance E. Rodewald, Senior Advisor, Immunization Program, China Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
It is reported that since 2007, Beijing has carried out a large-scale free vaccination campaign among local registered elderly and primary and secondary school students over 60 years old in order to effectively control and prevent influenza and protect public health.
For patients with chronic diseases, Dr. Rodewald, senior consultant of immunization program of China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, thinks that many pilot studies including China can be used for reference: for example, if influenza vaccination is included in the nursing standards of patients with chronic diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, etc., doctors should first realize the importance of influenza vaccination in avoiding the aggravation of the disease.
Du Xin, director of the Department of Cardiology, anzhen hospital, Capital Medical University.
In this regard, Du Xin, director of the Department of Cardiology, anzhen hospital, Capital Medical University, said that influenza vaccine can prevent myocardial infarction. She cited the evidence mentioned in the paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine: influenza is clearly related to myocardial infarction, which will increase the risk of myocardial infarction by six times.
"We have done a wide range of statistics, 33% of the hospitalized patients with heart failure in China were induced by infection, including the flu. If you want to control the infection from the source, controlling the flu is also a very important factor. " Du Xin said.
However, the importance of influenza vaccine has not been fully recognized by the whole society. At present, the total coverage of influenza vaccine in China is less than 2%.
Du Xin said that there are even a small number of grassroots doctors and community doctors who think that people suffering from cardiovascular diseases cannot be vaccinated with influenza vaccine. Medical staff need to raise their awareness of the value of vaccines and help patients reduce their misunderstanding of influenza vaccines.
"In the future, I think that doctors should recommend influenza vaccination in the doctor’s advice to high-risk patients including cardiovascular diseases, which will be of great help to improve the vaccination rate and reduce the acute attacks of some patients with chronic diseases." Du Xin said.
"I hope that China can speed up the introduction of more products and better help key populations improve vaccine protection." Feng Luzhao believes that the support at the national level is of great significance to improving the vaccination rate. In order to strengthen people’s understanding of the necessity of influenza vaccination, it is necessary to vigorously carry out health education, encourage the strengthening of investment in public vaccines, promote the policy of benefiting the people, and further build a more convenient and accessible vaccination service system.
Medical staff are high-risk groups of influenza, so we should strengthen protection.
Medical staff themselves are highly exposed to influenza, but their awareness of influenza prevention and control needs to be improved. Du Xin learned from personal experience that the influenza vaccination rate of medical staff is relatively low.
"Many medical staff, like the general public, are also lucky enough to think that influenza vaccine is a preventive measure, and it is just as well not to vaccinate. But in fact, medical staff will encounter many patients during the consultation. They are always in a state of high exposure to the virus, and the risk of infection in the flu season is 3-4 times higher than that of the general population. "
Du Xin believes that doctors and nurses, especially those working in emergency departments and departments related to respiratory diseases, belong to high-risk groups of influenza. "How to make our medical staff and the whole society realize the preventive value of influenza vaccine is a task that we need to work hard together and the government needs to continue to strengthen guidance."
The public still has misunderstandings about influenza vaccine.
At present, the public still has misunderstandings about influenza vaccine, such as ineffective vaccination effect and inability to prevent influenza. In this regard, Feng Luzhao said that influenza vaccine is recommended according to the strains predicted by WHO every year and needs to be vaccinated every year. In this case, first of all, it is not excluded that the recommended strains are not completely matched with the actual epidemic viruses, so the vaccination effect of influenza vaccine will be different every year.
"This is limited by the current technology, and it cannot be accurately predicted. The universal flu vaccine has not yet been developed. However, if the matching rate is good, the protective effect of the vaccine can reach 70-80%. If the matching is not good, the protective force can only reach 20-30%. " Feng Luzhao said.
In addition, the effect of the vaccine is related to the vaccination rate. Feng Luzhao said that if the vaccine has a moderate protective effect of 50%, as long as the vaccination rate is high enough, it can still form an immune barrier, reduce the incidence rate and reduce the medical expenses of individuals and countries.
Secondly, many respiratory viruses and bacteria, such as respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus, or streptococcus pneumoniae infection, can cause symptoms similar to influenza. Influenza vaccination can prevent influenza virus infection, but it can’t prevent respiratory tract infection or common cold caused by other viruses. In fact, many people still have cold symptoms after being vaccinated with influenza vaccine, but it is not the flu.
Influenza vaccine is not recommended in priority. It should be vaccinated before the flu season.
The flu season is high in autumn and winter, and it reaches its peak in January. Talking about the best time for vaccination, Feng Luzhao believes that people had better get the flu vaccine before the epidemic season comes. During this period, it will take several weeks to produce antibodies after vaccination to ensure the protection of human body before the peak period of infection risk comes; Even if the vaccination is not completed before the arrival of the flu, as long as there is no flu infection, people can be vaccinated throughout the epidemic season. "Early vaccination is better than late vaccination, and late vaccination is better than no vaccination." Feng Luzhao said.
In addition, in view of the fact that babies under 6 months old can’t be vaccinated with influenza vaccine, family members and caregivers of children are recommended to be vaccinated, so as to provide a safe and secure nursing environment for children, and pregnant women are encouraged to be vaccinated with influenza vaccine to prevent influenza attack.
Feng Luzhao said that according to the "Technical Guide for Influenza Vaccination in China (2018-2019)", people who can be vaccinated with different types of vaccine products from different manufacturers can voluntarily vaccinate any kind of influenza vaccine, and there is no priority recommendation. At present, influenza vaccine has been listed, and residents can make an appointment and vaccinate at the inoculation point of the community health service center in their jurisdiction.