Faced with the success of vaccination against influenza in pharmacies, the Council of the Order of Pharmacists hopes to generalize the system from the fall of 2019.
Since October 6, 2018, Hauts-de-France, Occitanie, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Auvergne Rhône-Alpes are among the regions in which pharmacists are now authorized to vaccinate patients against seasonal flu.
A system extended to all adults?
More than three months after the launch of this experimental device, 712,000 people at risk were vaccinated in a pharmacy. According to Carine Wolf-Thal, president of the Council of the Order of Pharmacists, 161,000 of them had never been before. “I am not sure that there has already been such a marked shift for the profession: it completely changes the role and the perception that the general public has of pharmacists”, she welcomed Thursday during a press briefing. “Vaccination brings into the collective unconscious the idea that the pharmacist is a health professional and not just a professional who sells boxes”.
The success of this test operation is such that pharmacists hope to generalize vaccination against influenza in pharmacies from the fall of 2019. A request against which the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn does not seem to oppose. “We now want to go further, and be able to vaccinate all adults, and no longer just the target population of Health Insurance”, explained Carine Wolf-Thal, admitting to having already ordered 30% additional doses for next season.
Increase vaccination coverage
Those most at risk are those over 65, pregnant women, patients with certain chronic diseases such as diabetes, and obese people. and family circle of infants under 6 months at risk of severe influenza. These people, for whom vaccination against the flu is strongly recommended, can collect their vaccine from a pharmacy on presentation of a health insurance voucher, free of charge. Or, if they are located in one of the test regions, get vaccinated directly at a pharmacy under certain conditions: the vaccination must be done in a separate room, the pharmacist must know the patient’s history and must stay with him for 15 to 30 minutes after the vaccination to ensure that the patient does not experience any side effects.
The objective of this measure is to encourage patients, and especially those most at risk, to get vaccinated and to simplify the vaccination course. Currently, seasonal flu vaccination coverage is below 50% for the population at risk. The will of the government is to go to 75%. The countries with the best vaccination coverage are those where all health professionals are authorized to vaccinate. Remember that the flu epidemic affects between 2 and 6 million people each year in mainland France and killed 17,000 people in 2017, 93% of whom were people aged 65 or over.
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