The total coverage rate of influenza vaccine in China is less than 2%. Expert： Vaccine is the most effective means to prevent influenza.

　　Vaccination and health care. The picture shows the medical staff in Qiaodong District, Xingtai City, Hebei Province explaining vaccine knowledge to kindergarten children. Photo by Zhang Chi (Xinhua News Agency)

　　The 2019 academic exchange meeting on seasonal influenza prevention and control strategy was held in Beijing recently. Experts attending the meeting stressed that annual influenza vaccination is the most effective means to prevent influenza, which can significantly reduce the risk of influenza and serious complications.

　　"the State Council’s Opinions on Implementing Healthy China Action reaffirms the importance of chronic disease management and influenza vaccine prevention and control, and gives priority to advocating high-risk groups to get influenza vaccine before the influenza epidemic season. We call on the whole people to be vaccinated every year to form a group immune barrier to reduce the incidence of influenza in the whole society. " Yang Wei Zhong, vice president of Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, said.

　　As an acute respiratory infection, influenza is not an ordinary cold. Influenza virus directly attacks the respiratory system of human body, which can cause many serious complications such as viral pneumonia, secondary bacterial pneumonia, shock, disseminated intravascular coagulation and so on, and comes as scheduled with a brand-new look every year, causing seasonal epidemic.

　　Influenza and its complications have always been seriously underestimated by the whole society. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that worldwide, seasonal influenza epidemic can lead to 650,000 deaths every year. In recent years, the incidence and mortality of influenza in China have generally shown a sharp upward trend.

　　Feng Luzhao, a researcher at China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, pointed out that infants, school students, chronic patients and the elderly are all high-risk groups of influenza. Vaccine is the most economical and effective intervention measure for influenza prevention and control, and vaccination for high-risk groups is recommended first.

　　However, the importance of influenza vaccine has not been fully recognized by the whole society. At present, the total coverage rate of influenza vaccine in China is less than 2%. Feng Luzhao believes that the support at the national level is of great significance to improving the vaccination rate, and it is necessary to vigorously carry out health education; We should encourage more investment in public vaccines and further build a more convenient and accessible vaccination service system.

　　At present, the influenza vaccines approved for marketing in China are trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine and tetravalent inactivated influenza vaccine respectively. People who can be vaccinated with different types of vaccine products from different manufacturers can voluntarily be vaccinated with any influenza vaccine. (Reporter Chen Wei)