The Ministry of Health of Belarus strongly recommends getting vaccinated against influenza by mid-November

October 20, Minsk /BELTA/. The Ministry of Health strongly recommends that the population of the republic participate in influenza vaccination. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by the ministry's press service. The Ministry of Health claims that it is vaccination that will help create the level of collective immunity, thanks to which it will be possible to "ensure an increase in the population's resistance to this infection, a decrease in the severity of the disease, and a reduction in the probability of illness in individuals without immunity." In their opinion, vaccines can potentially prevent a flu epidemic. Doctors assure that vaccination with modern flu vaccines, prepared from appropriate strains and used in the correct dose, "protects about 90% of healthy children and adults from influenza." Medical professionals consider the period from the second half of September to the second half of November to be the optimal time for vaccination, as the incidence of ARVI and influenza in the country peaks from November to March each year. The immunization campaign against influenza in Belarus is currently in full swing. About 288,000 people have already been vaccinated, and a total of about 2 million people (about 20% of the country's population) are planned to be vaccinated. The opportunity to get vaccinated free of charge is provided to individuals at high risk of developing complications after influenza: people with chronic diseases of the respiratory, cardiovascular, and endocrine systems, with impaired kidney function or hemoglobinopathies, with immunodeficiencies, including HIV-infected individuals and those undergoing immunosuppressive therapy, as well as children over six months of age who are frequently and long-term ill, adolescents, and people over 65 years of age, and pregnant women. Healthy children aged 3 to 16 years and individuals who, due to their professional activities, have a high risk of contracting influenza (medical personnel, workers in children's homes, orphanages, boarding schools, other educational institutions, workers in poultry processing plants, the service sector, trade and public catering, transport organizations, ornithologists, and others) are also subject to free vaccination. According to the Ministry of Health, the incidence of ARVI in Belarus is currently at a non-epidemic level and is due to the circulation of non-influenza respiratory viruses (adenoviruses, respiratory syncytial virus, parainfluenza viruses). -0-