In a context of the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic in France, with an explosion rate among 5-11 year olds, the vaccination of children “at risk”, likely to develop severe forms of the disease, opened on Wednesday, December 15.
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“The High Authority for Health (HAS), in its opinion of November 25, 2021, and the Vaccine Strategy Steering Committee (COSV), in its opinion of December 6, 2021, recommend starting the vaccination of children as soon as possible. from 5 to 11 years at risk of severe form of Covid-19 and death, as well as those living in the entourage of an immunocompromised person “, recalled Tuesday the General Directorate of Health (DGS), in a document sent to health professionals and relayed by The Parisian.
This vaccination should be generalized, on a voluntary basis, to all other children in the days or weeks to come, depending on the opinion to be issued by the Haute Autorité de santé. Franceinfo takes stock of this new stage of the vaccination campaign in three questions.
1Who are the children affected?
This vaccination “concerns at this stage the children presenting at least one comorbidity, as well as the children living in the entourage of an immunocompromised person, within the household”, specifies the General Directorate of Health.
For the first case, these are children suffering from chronic liver diseases, chronic heart and respiratory diseases, neurological diseases, cancer undergoing treatment, obesity, diabetes, primary immunodeficiency or even of children with Down’s syndrome. “To these pathologies can be added situations where, on a case-by-case basis, doctors specializing in organs and rare diseases can offer vaccination to children due to a vulnerability conferring a major risk of serious forms of Covid- 19 “, continues the DGS in its note dedicated to the subject.
In all, there are 360,000 children at risk of developing a severe form of the disease and living in the entourage of immunocompromised people.
2How is this vaccination organized?
Concretely, there will be different places of vaccination, explained Tuesday the Ministry of Health. Doses may be administered in pediatric departments in hospitals, in specialized establishments and in centers for medium and long stays. “The doses will be delivered to the PUIs (pharmacy for indoor use, in healthcare establishments) December 14 and 16 at the end of the day “, specifies the Directorate General of Health.
Several vaccination centers in each department also offer this vaccination, with “dedicated pediatric lines”, according to the DGS. City doctors will also be able to order doses and vaccinate children, but from the end of December.
“For children aged 5 to 11 at risk of severe disease, the complete vaccination schedule is 2 doses of vaccine 3 weeks apart. (…) A rapid diagnostic orientation test is recommended. (TROD) serological before each vaccination. Depending on the result of the test, a regimen with one or two doses will be proposed. “
the Directorate General of Health
“Right now the period is busy, pediatric emergencies, pediatricians, are working a lot with winter epidemics. So there is a real organizational challenge, if only to vaccinate these children”, warned Wednesday on franceinfo Professor François Angoulvant, pediatrician at Robert-Debré hospital and member of the French Pediatric Society.
3How many doses have been ordered?
Some 1.9 million child doses, the pediatric version of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, were ordered in December and a further million will be delivered in January. The vials delivered to the vaccination sites, which will contain 10 doses, will have an orange cap to differentiate them from adult doses (with a purple cap) and to avoid any errors.
Possible since its authorization in the European Union on November 25, the vaccination of the youngest is carried out with a version three times less dosed of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.