In the Vitebsk region, it is planned to cover 35% of the population with flu vaccinations this year

October 3, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. In the Vitebsk region, it is planned to cover at least 35% of the population and 40% of employees of large enterprises with flu vaccinations this year, Vladimir Sinkevich, chief physician of the Vitebsk Regional Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Public Health, told a BELTA correspondent. The population immunization campaign is already actively underway. As of September 27, 75.6 thousand people have been vaccinated. Of these, 60.7 thousand are adults and 14.9 thousand are children. In total, at the expense of the republican budget, it is planned to vaccinate more than 110 thousand residents in the region, at the expense of the local budget - 260.3 thousand, at the expense of enterprises, organizations and institutions - 60.7 thousand, and at the expense of citizens' personal funds - over 8 thousand. For the immunization of the population, vaccines with low reactogenicity and high immunogenicity are used in the region's healthcare organizations. These vaccines protect against influenza viruses that are predicted to circulate in the 2012/2013 epidemic season. Vladimir Sinkevich recalled that vaccination is the most effective means of flu prevention. "This is evidenced by the analysis of the results of flu vaccination in Belarus: the probability of contracting influenza in the unvaccinated group was 5.5 times higher compared to the vaccinated group, and the incidence of flu in the vaccinated was 81.8% lower than in the unvaccinated," noted Vladimir Sinkevich. He also emphasized that vaccination helps to create the level of individual and collective immunity that can ensure increased resistance of the population to this infection, reduce the severity of the disease, and decrease the likelihood of illness in individuals without immunity. -0-