Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - As expected, the H1N1 virus has mutated, but this should not recreate the psychosis unleashed in the first weeks of the flu. However, we must remain vigilant about the possible risks related to insufficient preventive action. On this front, in fact, our country is experiencing a paradox: although it remains among the first in the world for mandatory vaccinations, it is at the bottom for those of a voluntary nature. Witness of this is the abysmal distance between the quantity of vaccine distributed in the national territory for the H1N1 and the actual doses administered to date to the population and medical health staff. It is a "distortion" which will be analyzed and detailed by Professor Giovanni Alberto Ugazio, Director of the Department of Medicine at the Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital of Rome, during a Lecture entitled "The Vaccination Policy in Italy: Present and Future," before Italian paediatricians gathered in Padua, for the 65th National Congress of the Italian Society of Pediatrics. The treatment for this "distortion" - Prof. Ugazio says - is to encourage all citizens to take advantage of opportunities for vaccination through widespread presence of the Italian National Health Service in the nation, which offers a wide range of general practitioners and pediatricians. The Lecture is on 28 November 2009, at 12:30 pm at the Auditorium of Padova Fiere. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 25/11/2009)
