Slow vaccine campaign

Yesterday the Italian Association of General Doctors (FIMMG) has asked its associated to help the vaccination campaign. FIMMH also invited its members to be vaccinated.

“We invite every member to be active in order to facilitate the vaccination of the people in risk group and to get yourself vaccinated against the swine flu” wrote the national secretary of the FIMMG, Giacomo Milillo, in a letter sent to the 27,000 doctors enrolled to the Federation. “The start of the campaign, scheduled on November 15, it is not still at top speed and in many local health unit (Asl) there are some difficulties to begin the campaign. In some regions it has been decided to entrust the vaccination to the general doctors, in others this task has been assigned to local centers. It is not important who will give the vaccine against the swine flu, but the realization of a adequate vaccination cover. Therefore, it is fundamental that the message to the population is clearest and the most similar as possible. It is not a corrected and responsible professional behavior – wrote Milillo - to diffuse doubts on the emergency of the vaccine and perplexities that are not based on reliable sources of reference and rather contribute to create a climate of confusion that could put to risk the vulnerable groups of the population. Our vaccination is necessary to contribute to the protection of the population, in particular of the chronic ill ones who we assist. The advantage that the vaccination have for people at risk (chronic ill, women to the second and third trimester of pregnancy) is infinitely larger then possible theoretical risks. The doubts on the emergency of the vaccine are groundless and pretext: the adjuvant contained has been given to million persons in the past (more than 40 million) and has only recorded three or four cases of serious reactions. The contained mercury amount in the vaccine dose vaccinates is comparable to the amount we eat in one or two tuna cans.”

In Italy many doctors refuse the vaccine. According to La gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, newspaper of Bari city, in the Puglia Region only 7% of health care workers has been vaccinated.