The state has purchased the entire Hungarian stock of one of the influenza vaccines.



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The flu vaccine manufactured by Sanofi in Hungary cannot be sent to pharmacies or private vaccination centers, the International Vaccination Center confirmed at 24.hu. The Hungarian Vaxigrip Tetra stock was bought by the state, so in addition to the 1.3 million vaccines manufactured in Hungary so far, the Sanofi vaccine will also be available, although the question is how it will be distributed. They couldn’t tell the exact number at the vaccination center, but it’s certainly a vaccine in the hundreds of thousands.

In the International Vaccine Center it has been said that this vaccine is administered mainly to children under 3 years of age (it can only be administered) and whoever is vaccinated for the first time should receive it twice. They couldn’t say which one they would use instead of the four-component vaccine, but they had already started looking for an international company to order a similar vaccine. The task is not easy, as the demand for influenza vaccination has also increased abroad, so it is easy that there are fewer imported vaccines available in Hungary compared to previous years.

This can also be a concern because many patients do not want to receive the Hungarian-made 3Fluart vaccine, and there are those who are not recommended by the GP, but the imported version. A family doctor explained to 24.hu that it contains all the virus manufactured in Hungary, but that only one of the virus proteins is “included” in the preparation of other companies. Therefore, post-vaccination reactions (such as possible muscle pain) are less severe. Although according to all doctors, the three components of Hungarian manufacture also provide adequate protection against influenza, imported vaccines have four components, that is, they provide protection against four viruses instead of three.

The influenza vaccine is administered by a healthcare worker in an XV. district medical office on January 9, 2020. Photo: Tamás Kovács / MTI

Sanofi’s Director of Communications is a His popular words Over the weekend, Vaxigrip Tetra said it was available in limited quantities, and after a long manufacturing process, the company couldn’t even deliver more.

Family doctors can request the flu vaccine starting Oct. 20, which the state has made free for everyone this year. Due to the coronavirus epidemic, in addition to the GPs Müller Cecília Medical Director and János Slavik an infectologist also stressed that everyone should get vaccinated. The chief physician of the department of the Central South Pest Hospital-National Institute of Hematology and Infectious Diseases justified it by doubling the possibility of death in those suffering from coronavirus infections and infleunza at the same time.

Most of the GPs we interviewed are not concerned about the low propensity for vaccination experienced in previous years, despite the state not ordering more than in previous years, despite the coronary epidemic (1.3 million vaccines were available last year and this year, but last year it was usually only half sold out.) However, some have indicated that if everyone follows the advice of the national medical director and starts vaccinating in the office, few vaccines will be available. At the moment, they see the timing of the vaccination schedule as a bigger problem, since they can only admit patients according to much stricter rules than in previous years: in most surgeries you can choose to inject.

We tried to find out with the Ministry of Human Resources what would happen if GPs ran out of the vaccine, but the ministry only wrote in its response that “preliminary surveys suggest that 1.3 million influenza vaccines will be sufficient” and that “Latest Unfortunately, on average, only half of vaccines have been exhausted in recent years.” We also asked the manufacturer of the state-ordered vaccine, Fluart Ltd., what if it turns out that all 1.3 million vaccines they will not be enough, but the company referred the matter to the National Center for Public Health, from where our article they did not respond.

Top image: A worker fixes the safety sleeve for syringes at the Sanofi pharmaceutical company factory in Manyolc, Csanyikvölgy. Photo: Zoltán Máthé / MTI



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