Doctor urges public to get vaccinated
MIDRAND – Sanofi held a press briefing with the intention to let people know about how important it was to get vaccinated annually.
Global pharmaceutical company, Sanofi Pasteur held a press briefing at their Midrand head office on 11 February to raise awareness about the importance of people vaccinating for influenza.
Leading the presentation was Dr Thinus Marais, the medical head for Sanofi Pasteur Africa, who explained that influenza is an acute respiratory illness caused by three types of influenza – types A, B and C.
Marais stressed that research has shown that three to five million cases occur per year on a global scale with up to 650 000 deaths annually.
“We are most concerned when it comes to human infections, globally it affects five to 10 per cent adults and 20 to 30 per cent of children and can result in hospitalisation and death.
“These deaths and infections often occur in the categories of high-risk groups that we have often identified such as pregnant women, the very young and elderly and individuals with underlying chronic conditions and the big groups here such as those infected by diabetics and HIV.
Through a short video, Marais also explained the impact influenza has on people living with respiratory diseases adding that they were more at risk as the disease reacts more on them.
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“The idea we are trying to get across is that, from a societal and a cultural perspective, often influenza is considered as a non-severe illness, something that you get and you recover from and it is often compared to a cold, unfortunately, but, these are two very different diseases which are often logged together.
“People need to get vaccinated every year because of the target that we are chasing changes every year. The influenza virus is able to change and mutate quite regularly and quite easily and that is why, year on year, we find that the most common circulating strain of influenza changes. It is for that reason that what we put in the vaccine has to change so it matches the most common circulating strain,” he added.
Marais further added that all flu vaccines that are supplied to South Africa, irrespective of the manufacturer, are looking at a coverage rate of three per cent, which is dismal. On the back of that, they see 12 thousand deaths every year for a disease that is preventable.
