Immunisation schedule of the Pediatric Spanish Association: 2024 recommendations.

Abstract

The AEP 2025 Vaccination and Immunization Schedule recommended for children, adolescents and pregnant women residing in Spain features the following novelties: Due to the increase in measles cases and outbreaks in recent years, we recommend advancing the second dose of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to 2 years of age. As a consequence of the above, since many autonomous communities (ACs) use the quadrivalent vaccine for the second dose of MMR and varicella vaccines, we recommend, for all ACs, advancing the second dose of varicella vaccine to 2 years of age. Due to the very significant increase in cases of pertussis since late 2023 and especially in 2024, we recommend advancing the dose of Tdap given in adolescence to 10-12 years of age. To complete protection against meningococcal disease in adolescence, we recommend vaccination against MenB at age 12 years. We believe that vaccination against seasonal influenza should be routine up to age 18 years, but given the disappointing coverage in children aged 6-59 months, we currently consider that improving this coverage should be prioritised, extending vaccination to children and adolescents aged 5-18 years once this objective has been achieved. Among other aspects, the routine immunization tables for healthy individuals and risk groups, the use of the new extended-valence conjugate vaccines against pneumococcal disease, routine vaccination at 4 months of age with MenACWY and vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 for individuals aged more than 6 months with risk factors remain unchanged with respect to the 2024 schedule.