It is planned to pay for a flu vaccine for pregnant women and children under the age of two

On November 8, at the state secretaries meeting, amendments were made to the Cabinet of Ministers * Regulation, which aims to extend the vaccination schedule and the range of people to be vaccinated. It is expected that the state will fully pay the flu vaccine for pregnant women and children under the age of two.

Currently, ambulatory care compensatory funds are offset by a flu vaccine for 50% of pregnant women and 100% for children up to two years old, but the process is quite complicated – you get a prescription, go to the pharmacy where you buy the vaccine , then go to the family doctor who is vaccinated.

To reduce the burden on doctors and to improve the availability of a flu vaccine and to ensure a unified approach to the provision of vaccines paid from the state budget, a vaccine against flu for pregnant women will be included in the vaccination timetable; and children under the age of two. This is also in line with the recommendations of the World Health Organization, as pregnant women and young children are at high risk.

Vaccination against the flu vaccination schedule is expected to begin in the autumn of 2019, with seasonal influenza occurring.

Other changes are planned in the vaccination schedule. Vaccination against tuberculosis is planned in neonates within 12 hours of birth (instead of 2-5 days earlier). Also, in other EU countries where children are vaccinated against tuberculosis, the vaccine administration time varies, for example, in Estonia – during the first 12 hours after birth, in Lithuania – from 2 to 3 days in Slovakia – on Day 3rd in Poland – in the first 24 hours after birth. In turn, as of 1 January 2020, the dose of the sixth polio vaccine should be for teenage children, replacing it with the sixth pertussis vaccine dose, as there is an increase in pertussis incidence.

Similarly, vaccination against unaccountable persons who have been in close contact with a person infected with such epidemiologically significant transmissible diseases such as diphtheria, polio, measles, rubella and epidemic parotitis will also be included in the vaccination schedule. Thus, the legislation clearly stipulates that the vaccination of the above mentioned contact persons against infectious diseases will be covered by the state budget funds.

At the same time, the regulations specify the requirements for vaccination authorities that will promote appropriate vaccination storage and promote rational ordering and use of vaccines.

To include vaccination against flu for pregnant women and young children in the autumn of 2019, as well as to introduce other amendments, additional funding is needed up to 2019-195304 EUR, for 2020 – 365.612 EUR and 359.296 EUR for 2021.

The problem of allocation of additional state budget resources in the draft regulations of the SM in the above mentioned measures 2019-2021. In the process of preparing and revising the draft law "On the medium-term budgetary framework for 2019, 2020 and 2021" and the draft law "On the state budget for 2019" in the Cabinet of Ministers, together with the additional requests financing from all ministries and central state institutions.

* Amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers September 26, 2000 Regulation no. 330 "Vaccination Rules"