Over 55,000 sign up for flu shots, but pregnant women and children are once again the least interested

Free seasonal flu vaccination is under way at 31 sites across Macedonia. So far 55,535 people have signed up, and more than 60 percent of them are over 65. On the first day of the stepped-up campaign, more than 800 people got the shot.

Older people come out of habit. "I've come every year since I turned 60," one woman says at a vaccination site in Skopje. Doctors say interest grows every year. The problem lies with those who don't show up.

High-risk groups are lagging

For years, interest has been lowest among pregnant women and children, even though they are also a high-risk group. "Unfortunately, in our country the flu vaccination rate among pregnant women and children is still low, but we can see the trend improving over the years," says Dr. Filip Doksimovski of the Kozle University Clinic for Respiratory Diseases in Children. There, he says, five or six children are currently on oxygen support for lower respiratory infections, although no flu case has been isolated so far.

The free vaccine is meant for people over 65, the chronically ill, health workers, pregnant women and children aged six months to five years. But before they come, they have to register at vakcinacija.mk, after which they get a text message with an appointment. Anyone who turns up without one may be sent home.

That's exactly where the obstacle is. Dr. Sonja Raleva of the Skopje Health Centre urges the families of older people to register them, because many don't know how to use the online app on their own. A system that needs an app to vaccinate you, when the people who need it most are the ones who struggle most with the app - that's the paradox of digital healthcare.

The first 30,000 doses have been secured, another shipment of 26,000 is expected by November 15, and the goal is up to 80,000 doses for the season. A missed appointment can be used within about a month. The question is whether the people who need protection most will ever make it to the first one.