19 different vaccine calendars

The tuberculosis vaccine is only placed in the Basque community at birth. Hepatitis B is given to newborn babies in Madrid and La Rioja, at two months. Against chickenpox it is vaccinated at 15 months in Madrid while in others only at 11 years. The hepatitis A vaccine is only given in Catalonia, Ceuta or Melilla. And so a lot of differences in how much and what vaccines and when they are given to Spanish children.

Although all meet the guidelines of the Interterritorial Health Council, 19 vaccination calendars coexist in Spain, one for each autonomous community plus Ceuta and Melilla.

Each community has its own vaccination calendar, which not only establishes a difference in criteria regarding the age at which vaccines should be applied but some include vaccines that others do not.

Obviously, there are political and economic arguments behind this situation, but this difference in criteria creates confusion in parents and makes us think about the inequality that exists. We wonder why a child in one community is being vaccinated against the hepatitis A or pneumococcal vaccine while in another it has to be paid (and not cheap, by the way).

Some communities are willing to establish a single vaccination schedule, a common guideline for all children, but some communities are not on the job and defend their vaccination programs with nails and teeth.

I do not know what the political war on vaccination will end, but beyond the regional disputes of which I am not very up to date, I think that the right of equality of all children to have the same possibilities of prevention should ultimately prevail of diseases.