The Province began negotiations with the Takeda laboratory to purchase about 100 thousand doses to immunize against the dengue to about 50 thousand people from prioritized groups: health teams and patients who were hospitalized for this disease this year. But the purchase has not yet been completed because a key definition of the Nation remains: knowing how many vaccines it will demand and with what criteria it will apply them. It is quite different if you decide immunization with more or less restricted incidence rates or if it is only applied in endemic areas, with the disease present throughout the year, such as some regions of northwest Argentina. The criteria that are on the table are to apply population vaccination in sectors with more than a thousand cases per 100 thousand inhabitants, 1,500 per 100 thousand inhabitants or 4 thousand per 100 thousand inhabitants.
In the event that the Nation decides on the intermediate option, 14 departments of the province would enter immunization, including Capital, San Justo and General San Martín, among the most populated. “Once the Nation defines its criteria and how many vaccines it buys, We will be able to know if there is availability for a purchase from the province. Our intention is to advance vaccination with the established criteria; if it is not covered by the Nation, it will be complementary, with funds from the province. But we are not going to pay a different price than what Takeda sells to the Nation,” Pieckenstainer remarked.
The Japanese laboratory sells each dose of the Qdenga between 26 and 28 dollars. Córdoba had reached a price of 24 dollars plus VAT, but it is taken for granted that due to volume the Nation will obtain a better price. “What we are going to propose is that the Nation buys the vaccines that we want in the same batch and we transfer the money to them, at the price that they obtain it,” explained the minister.
This negotiation slightly extends the times that the province had announced to begin vaccination for the next dengue season. But in Pieckenstainer’s opinion, there is still time to do it.
The experts’ recommendation
In the last meeting, held in April of this year, the National Immunization Commission (Conain) considered that “at the current time, according to the epidemiological situation, it is not a vaccine to be incorporated into the National Calendar for all jurisdictions in the country. It is proposed as a focused strategy.”
And he recommended that this focused vaccination strategy “have as its target population people between 15 and 39 years old in prioritized departments according to the epidemiological situation.” Just because I start with this group does not mean that it is the only one considered. “It will begin in stages with the population between 15 and 19 years old and progress will be made in a dynamic, progressive, and staggered manner according to the availability of vaccines and according to the strategies already implemented by the jurisdictions.”
For Conain, it is key not to delay the times, to avoid another season with a high incidence of cases. “It is essential to start before the period of greatest viral circulation in order to complete the planned scheme and the prioritization of the HIV-positive population, from a communication perspective, in the selected jurisdictions,” the organization published.
Regarding the areas to prioritize, Conain is not only talking about the northwest of the country. “It is agreed to move forward with the staggered strategy and as soon as possible taking into account that the scheme consists of two doses with an interval of three months to achieve the expected efficacy for this vaccine. There are areas with localities with lower incidence compared to the NOA and NEA regions, but with high population densities, especially in the Central region, which presented a historical increase in the number of cases,” the specialists analyzed. “The seasonality changed qualitatively, there was a modification in terms of temporality, advancement, but without interruptions. The question that arises and that there are still no certainties is whether the endemic regions are spreading,” they considered in one of the answers to the questions in the commission’s plenary session.
