Experts compare “Essential to vaccinate diabetic patients even more in this period
Experts compare: ‘Indispensable to vaccinate diabetic patients even more so in this pandemic period’!”
“Indispensable to vaccinate diabetic patients even more so in this pandemic period!” January 21, 2021 – Patients with diabetes have an increased mortality compared to the general population, due to problems related to the increased risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, but also to the increased incidence of infectious complications that contribute decisively to reduced life expectancy.
Four times more likely to be hospitalized
Data report that individuals with type 1 diabetes (DT1) are four times more likely to be hospitalized for infections, while in type 2 diabetes (DT2) there is twice the risk compared to non-diabetic individuals. For these reasons, protecting the diabetic patient with a massive flu and pneumococcal vaccination campaign is extremely important, in addition to having to be included in the category of patients most at risk. Very interesting points emerged during the webinar, including the need for greater awareness of physicians (both GPs and specialists) towards their patients.
The need for the establishment of a vaccine registry to monitor treatment has been emphasized in many quarters. This would allow for better planning in all regions. To explore these issues further, Diabetes Italia Onlus and Motore Sanità organized the webinar ‘DIABETES AND VACCINES: AN EVEN STRONGER NEED IN THE COVID PERIOD,’ thanks to the unconditional contribution of SANOFI and involving institutions, GPs, pharmacists and patient associations.
One of the strongest messages that emerged during the webinar is the cost-effectiveness of influenza vaccination, which prevents many hospitalizations and generates savings for the NHS.
These savings could be reinvested in prevention interventions
“Vaccines have always represented one of the main weapons humanity has to fight infectious diseases. These days they are back in high news because of the hope that the vaccine represents in the fight against coronavirus. However, there is not only the latter.
There are many infectious diseases for which it is possible to vaccinate, and there are recommended vaccines provided free of charge for people with diabetes that avoid diseases that could irreparably aggravate the clinical picture. It is therefore important for everyone to be properly informed on this topic,” said Stefano Nervo, President Diabetes Italy “Those who, like me, belong to a generation that lived their childhood in a vaccine-deficient era, can only express favorable opinions, indeed I would recommend the vaccine, I have three children and they have been vaccinated for everything possible today.
I remember the frustration and the sense of helplessness when I looked at my deskmate in elementary school, she was a beautiful child, big eyes and a thick hair of blond curls, unfortunately she could not run, play and jump like us because she had had polio which left her with a severe handicap. It was unfair and made me sad, like the time Angela’s little brother died from a disease with the unpronounceable name Diphtheria. We want to remember the terror of contracting rubella of pregnant mothers?
The list is very long, difficult to express in a few lines what the vaccine means to my generation. Vaccinating means living, there are no benign diseases that are better to take instead of the vaccine, every time is a risk. Diseases are all interclass, democratic and socially blind, some we can defeat only with vaccine.
Medical science and research who have made it possible to live longer and grow older, today a new threat is taking away, well before time thousands of our loved ones and we all live with the dread of encountering Covid.
