26.07.12
Flu vaccination for all UK children
All children in the UK are to be immunised against the flu free of charge, health secretary Andrew Lansley has decided. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has recommended the move, which could save 2,000 lives a year.
The vaccine will be administered via nasal spray for children aged 2-17, and will have to be organised in a 6-8 week period ahead of the flu season. It will be offered to up to nine million children.
The flu jab is already offered free of charge to at-risk groups, including small infants, the elderly and those with asthma, heart conditions or cerebral palsy. Healthy children are the least likely group to suffer severe complications from flu, but their close contact with other children means they can transmit the virus to others.
If the vaccination programme had a moderate take-up – of around 30% – there could be a 40% drop in flu cases, resulting in 11,000 fewer hospital admissions and 2,000 fewer deaths each year.
As there is only one manufacturer of the nasal spray, AstraZeneca, there will not be enough capcity to deliver the vaccine on such a large scale until at least 2014.
Chief medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies said: “Severe winter flu and its complications can make people really ill and can kill, particularly those who are weak and frail which is why we already offer vaccinations to the most at-risk groups.
“We accept the advice of our expert committee that rolling out a wider programme could further protect children, with even a modest take-up helping to protect our most vulnerable.
“There are significant challenges to delivering a programme that requires up to nine million children to be vaccinated during a six week period and we will look at the recommendations in detail to decide how best to develop and deliver the programme.”
The DH is considering who should deliver the vaccine, and what training is necessary for this.
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(Nasal spray image courtesy robin_24 used here under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic licence.)