More than 73% of Portuguese aged 65 and over have been vaccinated against flu this year, according to the third wave of a Vacinómetro report published on Tuesday. It also showed that most people were vaccinated on the recommendation of a doctor.
The report states that this is an initiative of the Portuguese Society of Pulmonology (SPP) and the Portuguese Association of General and Family Medicine (APMGF), which since 2009 has been monitoring in real time the level of influenza vaccination in priority groups 73.4% of Portuguese aged 65 years and older have already been vaccinated against influenza, and this coverage rate drops to 59.7% when the population aged 60 years and older is taken into account.
Wave 3 data from the Vacinometer also shows vaccine coverage rates exceeding 70% among chronically ill patients, with 79.8% of people with diabetes and 71.6% of people with cardiovascular disease vaccinated.
If only the 60 to 64 age group is taken into account, the vaccination coverage rate is 38.3%.
Among health care workers, the total number of people vaccinated is less than half, while the coverage rate among those who have direct contact with patients is 43.9%.
Regionally, of the “vaccinated population aged 65 years and over, 91.7% are from the Autonomous Region of Madeira, 89.1% from the Alentejo, 78.5% from the north, 73.5% from the Lisbon Metropolitan Region, 71 .6% Algarve, 62.5% central region and 50.0% autonomous region Azores.”
The report shows that 40.2% of those vaccinated did so on the recommendation of a doctor, 29.3% on their own initiative, 20% on a professional initiative, 5.8% because they are at risk and 3.9% because they were notified of the planning by the National Health Service. .
Another 34% of chronically ill patients intend to get vaccinated this flu season, and about 25% of people age 65 and older have the same intention, according to the data collected.
Vaccinometer also notes that when it comes to co-administering the flu vaccine with the Covid-19 vaccine, “77.5% of vaccinated people in the recommended groups opted for co-administration.”
Among those who preferred coadministration, 78.4% did so because they felt safer and 13.8% did so because of a physician’s recommendation.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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