Orange with Media Services, published on Tuesday, June 28, 2022 at 4:31 p.m.
This Tuesday, June 28, the High Authority for Health (HAS) issued a favorable opinion on the extension of vaccination skills to nurses, pharmacists and midwives for children from two years old.
HAS green light. With the objective of “increasing vaccination coverage”, the High Health Authority issued this Tuesday, June 28 a favorable opinion the extension of vaccination skills to nurses, pharmacists and midwives for children from two years of age, with specificities for the youngest or the immunocompromised.
In order to “simplify the vaccination course, multiply vaccination opportunities and therefore increase vaccination coverage”, the HAS estimates that these professionals are able to prescribe and administer the non-live vaccines registered in the vaccination schedule for children under 16, according to a press release.
The vaccines concerned are: BCG, Diphtheria-Tetanus-Poliomyelitis, Haemophilus Influenzae type b (HIB), Hepatitis B, Pertussis, Pneumococci, Meningococcus B, Meningococcus C, Meningococcus ACYW, Measles-Mumps-Rubella, Human Papillomavirus (HPV), Chickenpox, Flu.
For immunocompromised children (like adults), however, the HAS recommends that the issue of live vaccines remains the responsibility of doctors alone. For children under two years old, whose vaccination coverage is satisfactory, the HAS issues different recommendations depending on the professions concerned. Thus, it does not recommend expanding the vaccination skills of pharmacists and nurses for this age group. The nurses, who already had the skill, can continue to administer all vaccines registered in the vaccination schedule.
Midwives also concerned
Finally, the HAS recommends to authorize midwives to prescribe and administer all the vaccines included in the vaccination schedule. Until now, for newborns, midwives had the competence to prescribe and administer only for BCG and hepatitis B vaccines. This extension ensures continuity in care from birth to adolescence.
HAS recommends that this extension be subject to the follow-up of a certifying training for professionals who have not followed specific childhood vaccination modules. Midwives are therefore not affected by this certification training.
In addition, the HAS now includes vaccines against meningococcal B and against rabies in the skills extended to these professionals for vaccines intended for adults.