The ECDC has issued a statement recommending vaccination and immunization against seasonal respiratory viruses, highlighting that in the last campaign, flu vaccination coverage rates remained below the target of 75% across Europe, affecting both vulnerable groups and healthcare professionals.
“Only Denmark (76%), Ireland (75%), Portugal (71%), and Sweden (68%) reached or approached the European Union’s coverage target of 75%,” the European center noted, emphasizing that most other countries reported flu vaccination coverage significantly below 50%.
The report indicated that among healthcare professionals in European Union countries, the vaccination rate was even lower, averaging only 32%.
Every winter, flu epidemics “cause millions of infections across Europe, leading to hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths,” the ECDC stressed, warning that children are “particularly affected” by the virus.
The European center further noted that the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) annually accounts for approximately 250,000 hospitalizations of children and 160,000 of the elderly, while SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, continues to circulate in countries, advising vaccination for those with weakened immune systems, the elderly, and chronic disease patients.
In Portugal’s current seasonal vaccination campaign, which started about three weeks ago, over 1.2 million people have already been vaccinated against the flu and about 716,000 against COVID-19.
This campaign runs until April 30, 2026, in health centers and around 2,500 pharmacies, aiming to vaccinate approximately 2.5 million people against the flu and 1.5 million against COVID-19.
The second season of free vaccination against RSV is also underway, expected to cover around 76,000 children by March 31, 2026.
Following the first campaign, there was an approximately 85% decrease in ward and intensive care unit hospitalizations among children up to three months old and a 40% reduction in babies between three and six months old.
Since 1965, Portugal has had a free and universal national vaccination plan, aimed at protecting the population against diseases with the greatest potential to pose threats to public health and individual health for which effective vaccine protection is available.
