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Spain Approves National Vaccination Strategy for Irregular Migrants and Refugees

The technical guideline sets priority MMR, polio and tetanus-diphtheria shots, favors an initial dose within three weeks, and directs regional health services and NGOs to coordinate delivery to overcome access barriers.

Overview

  • The Public Health Commission of the Ministry of Health has approved a technical strategy aimed at people housed in the Programa de Atención Humanitaria who arrived by irregular routes.
  • The document prioritizes measles-mumps-rubella, poliomyelitis and tetanus-diphtheria vaccines and recommends giving at least one initial dose as early as possible, preferably within the first three weeks of reception.
  • When vaccination records are missing, unreadable or uncertain, the guidance says to complete the required schedules because routine vaccines have a strong safety profile.
  • The strategy gives specific clinical guidance for groups such as children, pregnant women and institutionalized people, including hepatitis A for under-fives when status is unknown and seasonal flu for long-stay institutionalized residents.
  • Implementation now depends on coordinated action by autonomous communities, reception centers and NGOs to deliver on-site vaccination, use intercultural mediators, and track follow-up doses, and no national rollout metrics or timelines have yet been published.