[Immunizations in hospitalized and outpatient children: the reduction of lost vaccination opportunities].

Among the strategies directed towards the control of preventable illnesses through vaccination, are the "National Days for Vaccination" and the intensive campaigns for country-wide vaccination, which have been taking place in our country during the last few years. An important aspect that must be taken into account is the immunization of children or patients who are hospitalized or those are under medical supervision due to changing chronic pathologies which have is some way interfered with the normal course of the application of the basic scheme of immunizations. The causes which have lead to incomplete vaccination schemes or to unstarted ones have been analyzed in different studies. In many cases, it has been observed that the information available to parents as well as to health workers in inexact. Hospitalization per se does not constitute a contraindication for vaccination, except in certain circumstances where there is some relation to the type of vaccine, as for example that of live attenuated virus or the existence of an underlying disease, like neoplasms and congenital or acquired immunodeficiency, which should be individually studied to evaluate the application of the vaccine depending on each individual case.