Flu vaccination ‘influenced’ by Covid-19: Italy experience

BACKGROUND: During last decades, National Health System has guaranteed free flu vaccination to the ‘fragile’ population. However, the population's compliance with this prophylactic procedure has never been optimal, reaching only in a few years and only in some regions the percentage considered satisfactory of 70% of people at risk. The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly raised the public's awareness of diseases of an infectious nature, respiratory in particular, among which influenza occupies a prominent role. We aimed to assess whether that compliance is increased as a result of Covid-19. METHODS: From epicenter.iss.it, influenza vaccination coverage rates of the Italian population both as a whole and of individual regions from 1999 to 2022 were obtained. In particular, comparisons were made between data for the pre-Covid (2017-2019) and post-Covid (2020-2022) three-year periods. RESULTS: The comparison revealed an increase in influenza vaccine coverage nationwide over the last three-year period (2020-2022). An average of the values from 1999 to 2017 of 15.22% of the population, an average of the pre-Covid three-year period (2017-2019) of 16.3%, not deviating from the national average of previous years, and an average of the post-Covid three-year period (2020-2022) of 22.1% was developed. A 35.58% increase in influenza vaccine coverage in the general population in Italy between the two three-year periods could be ascertained, which was the subject of special attention. CONCLUSIONS: The Covid-19 pandemic has raised awareness among the population toward the usefulness of vaccination and not only toward the anti-SARS-CoV2 one. Influenza vaccination adherence has increased over the past three years. We plan to investigate whether compliance particularly affects those at higher risk who should be the main recipients. KEY MESSAGES: • The population after the covid 19 pandemic has become more aware of the usefulness of vaccination, not just the SARS-CoV2 vaccination.