Vaccination and Preventable Diseases — Interview with Sluvia Algarin
Vaccines have proven effective time and again in limiting the spread of diseases and preventing people from catching them, such as polio, tuberculosis, and the flu. With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing and further variants of the virus, such as delta and omicron, continuing to appear, getting vaccinated is important for protecting everyone’s health, including our own. Despite past epidemics being successfully contained and some illnesses eradicated entirely as a result of vaccination, there’s always some degree of skepticism from the uninformed and misled. When looking at the data, however, it’s clear how effective vaccines are, and how some diseases remain a problem despite vaccines existing for them. I sat down with Sluvia Algarin, a nurse practitioner, and discussed these issues.
So to start things off, in your work how often do you encounter illnesses that could have been prevented with vaccination?
Okay, so yes, in my practice, we estimate 50% we prevent when the patient is conducted to the vaccine. So we offer different vaccines. One of the examples is, right now, in the moment, is the COVID vaccine. So it’s very important now, so we focus on the vaccines that receive the two doses of vaccination for COVID, and use the Pfizer, Moderna, that is the most popular and it’s very proved that is the effectivity is 100%. And also we recommended and also enforced so that any patients with risk for hypertension, hypercholesterolemia receive the booster.
Of course.
So every six months that is estimated, that it really works.
Right.
Tuberculosis, especially in my practice, see that we prevent in a specific population: HIV patients, because in HIV patients, the immunodepression is very important to control. So this patient is in risk to get tuberculosis, more than other people. So this population, we recommend the tuberculosis vaccination.
Of course. So how do you feel about the general public’s perception of vaccines?
In this, the perception that I have for my patients is 80 percent, they received a vaccination because they think they want to prevent the disease, there are 20, maybe 25%, that they don’t believe in the vaccination because they read a lot of studies. There’s a miscommunication. I think they read on Google that some vaccinations prevented them, or that it’s not really effective, but it’s a less percent of population that they don’t believe.
What do you think contributes toward that skepticism?
The miscommunication there really is, is coming from the social media, Google, any other writing that is not supported for medical issues, or they’re not supported for a statistic that is already proved. And also, the social media is coming from any healthcare that is not really proved, that is a doctor or somebody that I know knows the effectiveness of a vaccine.
So how do you think we should combat vaccine skepticism?
Okay, so we also in my practice, focus on teaching to the patient, if they go to any Google, that is not a very good source. That any good source, and there is very effective source, is from the doctor, from the healthcare, so nurses, doctors, and any other professionals.
So, what are your thoughts on recent advancements in vaccine science, like with the COVID vaccine, for example? In how it’s done and that sort of thing, like the technology.
Yes, technology about the vaccine and in the case of COVID, yes, because also, right now we can provide a kit that we send it to the patient’s home, and the patient can do in the home. So they don’t need to expose for any other patients that really have COVID, and this is a good source the government gives you to use with my patients.
What steps do you think should be taken to deal with uneven distribution of the vaccines, like some places with lower income have less of it, for example?
Right now the distribution for the vaccine is for, the government decided, to specific centers or public health centers. And because all times ago, they give it to the providers, for example, doctors, epidemiologists, or a specific person that can treat the communicable disease. But the distribution right now, they have to be focused in the public area, because they don’t have they don’t have an access. Also the treatment, another treatment that is very popular and the government already removed, is the monoclonal antibodies as a treatment. So we don’t know if they want to change it to another treatment because this variant, omicron, is less damaging for the people, than another one, the delta. But right now, we need to work on some political issues about the distribution.
Of course. How do you feel about the potential of vaccines to eradicate some diseases entirely? Like, for example, polio isn’t as big an issue as it was back before.
Yes. So we already encouraged all the people, all the pregnant ladies, that if we already, like polio, you say, is eradicated because we use the vaccine. So we need to prove already that vaccination is 100% to reduce the result. So if we don’t force other people to do it in this time, so maybe the disease is going to come back. So first we need to afford to reduce any other risks to combat these diseases.
Finally, what do you think the future of vaccination looks like? Any further advancements that we can make with it, to make it more accessible, perhaps?
Yes, that is, I think my point in my practice is to do any efforts that government, like the FDA, approved vaccines, that already have good efficiency, less side effects and really prove that they want to rule out disease for this pneumonia that affected for COVID.
Do you think there’s anything else you’d want to add?
I’m very comfortable. I have, I already have a COVID [vaccine] two weeks ago, and I think that the people, they don’t pay attention that there is very high risk for any variant that is coming or there is right now, SARS COVID-19. It is very important to be aware that the vaccine is the most important thing that you need to do. The vaccine, and also, all the treatments have to be in the home because you don’t want to spread, people who are already contacted with the COVID for another people. So right now, we already treatment in very good standards about the patients, and thinking in the future we want to have other tools that are going to help people.
