Healthy under fives to get swine flu jabs

20^th November 2009 – The UK’s swine flu vaccination programme is being extended to three million healthy children under five years but over six months old.

Children under five are more likely than other groups to be admitted to hospital if they become ill with swine flu and have high rates of admission to critical care beds. There have been some deaths in this age group.

Children are more likely to spread swine flu because of the way they play and mix together. The half term break lead to a drop in new swine flu cases among older children, while it still rose among younger ones.

GP consultation rates for school-aged children have now risen again after the dip due to the school holiday. There has been a substantial increase in the number of under fives in hospital due to swine flu, including some in critical care.

Wait to be contacted by your GP

Normally healthy children will be offered the jabs after people in the current priority groups have been vaccinated. GP surgeries will contact parents when the jabs are available.

In a statement, the government’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Liam Donaldson, says “Our first priority is to ensure that people with clinical risk factors, and frontline health and social care staff are vaccinated.”

“Protecting those most at risk from the disease will reduce the levels of serious illness, and deaths. That’s why we will shortly offer the vaccine to young children.

“Vaccination remains a personal choice, but I urge everyone who is offered the vaccine to accept it and protect themselves. While the risks of serious complications from ‘flu may be small, the impact on those affected can be devastating.”

The Department of Health is keeping the option to extend the vaccination programme to other groups under review.

Latest statistics

The number of new UK swine flu cases has fallen for the second week in a row. The Health Protection Agency says there were 53,000 estimated new infections in the past week, down from 64,000 the week before. However, the number of people in hospital with the virus is still high, with 783 people in hospital, 180 of them in critical care beds.

There’s been another substantial increase in the number of swine flu deaths, with 32 deaths in the UK in the past week. This brings the total so far to 214.

Globally, the number of deaths has increased by 7% in the past seven days. The World Health Organisation says swine flu is now responsible for more than 7,000 deaths around the world.

Vaccination progress so far

The Department of Health says vaccination of people in the higher risk groups is “well under way”, with more than seven million doses of vaccine already distributed.  

Some GPs have been critical of the way supplies have been distributed, with larger surgeries reporting dwindling stocks because they received the same amount of vaccine as smaller practices. However, in a statement, Professor David Salisbury, Director of Immunisation, says  “Our phased approach to vaccine delivery is intended to focus on those most at risk and to use vaccine stocks responsibly.”