Fifth dose, what the circular of the Ministry of Health provides
The fourth dose never took off but the Ministry of Health issued a circular for the fifth dose of the anti Covid vaccine. Here is who it is recommended to, the answer if it can be done in conjunction with the flu vaccine and the predictions of the virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco
Already approved for subjects with markedly impaired immune response or who have undergone hematopoietic or solid organ transplantation, now the audience for the fifth dose of the anti Covid vaccine has been expanded by a circular from the Ministry of Health.
WHO IS RECOMMENDED THE FIFTH DOSE
"In order to achieve a further consolidation of the protection conferred by vaccines against severe forms of Covid-19, and in compliance with the principle of maximum precaution", the Ministry of Health recommends the fifth dose to all people aged 80 and over, to guests of residential facilities for the elderly (Rsa) and to all over 60 with frailty motivated by concomitant / pre-existing pathologies who have already received the fourth dose for at least 120 days or who have contracted the infection.
This is what is contained in the circular drawn up, as well as by the ministry, by the Higher Council of Health (Css), the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa) and the Higher Institute of Health (Iss).
EVEN OTHERS OVER 60 WILL BE ABLE TO RECEIVE IT
However, the circular does not exclude, "at the request of the interested party", also all the other subjects over 60 who have already received the fourth dose, always at least 120 days after the second recall or the last Sars-CoV infection. 2.
WHO COULD RECEIVE IT SO FAR
Until now, the fifth dose was recommended only for subjects "with marked impairment of the immune response, for causes related to the underlying disease or pharmacological treatments and for subjects undergoing hematopoietic or solid organ transplantation".
BECAUSE IT IS TALKING ABOUT FIFTH DOSE
According to what was communicated in the circular, the fifth dose was recommended due to the current epidemiological context which “presents an increased circulation of the Sars-CoV-2 virus contextual to the increase in the transmissibility index above the epidemic threshold”.
WHICH VACCINES MAY BE GIVEN
Those who undergo the fifth dose – but also all those who have completed the primary course of vaccination and are eligible for a booster – will receive one of the three bivalent vaccines recently authorized first by the European Medicines Agency (Ema) and then by the Agency Italian drug company (Aifa).
These are those from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna adapted to Omicron 1 and the latest addition from Pfizer / BioNTech but updated to Omicron 4 and 5.
CAN MULTIPLE VACCINATIONS BE DONE TOGETHER?
The ministry document also clarifies that it is possible to receive a dose of Covid vaccine concurrently – or in the same session or at any distance of time, before or after – with other types of vaccine, such as the flu one.
The exception, however, is the monkeypox vaccine , which should be administered at least 28 days after the coronavirus vaccine.
THE FORECASTS OF PREGLIASCO
Given the little success of the campaign for the fourth dose, the experts are not very optimistic even about this new recall, however, they remember the importance of averting twindemia , that is a twin epidemic of Covid and flu, thanks to vaccination.
“The fatigue and vaccine fatigue are already taking hold and it is not easy. But in the current phase that still sees this Covid wave rising, I think it is important to relaunch this vaccination – said the virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco, professor of Hygiene at the State University of Milan -. It goes without saying that in the near future we will have to arrive at an annual appointment, perhaps with combined vaccines, which are currently being validated, to make a single injection and protect themselves from flu and Covid ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/quinta-dose-cosa-prevede-la-circolare-del-ministero-della-salute/ on Tue, 18 Oct 2022 13:00:52 +0000.