The Nurses of Lleida issue a statement to demand the co-responsibility of all professions and people, sanitary or not, who work in care spaces to preserve the safety of the population in the health system.
COILL is concerned about the similarity between some of the symptoms of Influenza virus (influenza) and those of SARS-CoV-2 and how it can mask COVID19.
PRESS RELEASE
Urgent and massive vaccination of the health environment against influenza
The Official College of Nurses of Lleida (COILL) shows our concern about the arrival of seasonal flu in the current pandemic.
The epidemic influenza activity, which lasts approximately 8 weeks and which is expected (according to the antecedents) to reach a maximum incidence rate between the end of January and the beginning of February, arrives this year with many questions still about the behavior of COVID19 and the coexistence of the two viruses. One of the issues is the symptomatic similarity of influenza patients and those of COVID19. This predicts an overload of epidemiological surveillance services that will have to increase diagnostic tests to make a triage that allows both diseases to be treated simultaneously and safely, in sealed and differentiated circuits.
We are also concerned about the increase in the vulnerable population, because although we have indicators to define the risk groups for influenza, this year we will have to add the population that, after suffering COVID19, remains in a depressed immune situation or of persistent disease. A hypothetical effect of communicating vessels, with cases of successive infections and / or co-infections (influenza and COVID19), which would result in more severe patients with more hospitalizations and longer duration.
Standing in this situation that, at least will not be a normal flu season in terms of previous references, from the COILL we call for the vaccination of all nurses in Lleida, as well as other health groups, for to prevent professionals from becoming a vector of contagion in healthcare and residential spaces. We must increase the low rate of occupational vaccination, which ranges between 30 and 50% depending on the group, and which is far from the international recommendations of the World Health Organization and the World Health Organization. Public Health of Catalonia (ASPCAT) which sets group immunity at 75%. An unavoidable goal if we want to preserve the health of the people we care for, that of our families and, needless to say, our own. In this same sense, we encourage you to do pedagogy among all workers in any sector and who access the health environment on a daily basis, so that they become aware that they must also be vaccinated.
Finally, we insist on the promotion and monitoring of the influenza vaccination campaign, among the target groups (most vulnerable population).
For more information, you can consult the document “Recommendations for influenza vaccination. Campaign 2020-2021”, of the Public Health Agency.
Thank you so much, take care.
COILL BOARD
Lleida, 15 october 2020
