The Secretary of Health Quality of the Ministry of Health of the Nation, Leonardo Busso, met today at the headquarters of the national health portfolio with representatives of the Ministry of Health of the Province of Buenos Aires and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires with the objective of creating a Pediatric Respiratory Infections Network that allows coordinating the occupancy of beds in hospitals.
“We were analyzing information on pediatric respiratory infections with the epidemiology area and it seemed appropriate to start addressing the issue early before we have the peak every year. The idea of this meeting is to see how we can coordinate actions to network,” Busso explained.
And he added: “Disparate situations are occurring, in the City’s intensive care beds there is a low percentage of occupancy and what are intermediate or low complexity beds with slightly more patients, but in high complexity hospitals like Garrahan the occupancy It’s already high. So, it is important that we can use a common system to coordinate information and establish a network of levels of complexity.”
During the meeting, which was attended by the Vice Minister of Health of the Province of Buenos Aires, Alexia Navarro; and the executive medical director of the Garrahan Hospital, Soraya Elkik, it was highlighted that the information published in the Epidemiological Bulletin indicates a predominance of the influenza virus and a little less of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), mainly in the Central region.
In that sense, it was highlighted that, although the numbers are low in relation to the same epidemiological week last year, the cold projection is until the end of August, which could generate a later incidence than what usually happens.
In this regard, the importance of increasing flu vaccination was expressed, as well as the RSV vaccine since this year’s coverage percentages are low throughout the national territory.
Finally, it was agreed to move forward in the creation of a unified system and in the designation by the jurisdictions of a reference to carry out periodic operational meetings and in this way carry out coordinated work that allows responding to the possible increase in cases. in pediatrics.
Also present were the Deputy Medical Director of the Garrahan Hospital, Mariel Sánchez; the director of Emergencies of the Province of Buenos Aires, Jerónimo Chaparro; the head of maternity and childhood of the Province of Buenos Aires, Ariel Golubicki; the director of Children and Adolescents of the Province of Buenos Aires, Federico Paruolo; and the deputy director of the Pedro Elizalde Hospital, Raúl Gómez Traverso.
The Undersecretary of Institutes and Supervision, Enrique Rifourcat, participated on behalf of the Ministry of Health of the Nation; the national director of Epidemiology and strategic information, Eduardo de los Ríos; the National Director of Management of Assistance Services, Diego Masaragian; the director of Health Emergencies, Federico Villagran; the Chief of Staff Secretary of Health Quality, Gabriela Carobene; and the advisor to the Ministry of Health Quality, Elizabeth Jerónimo.
