Swine flu jabs due in weeks

Fri Oct 30 2009 06:01:26

The Government has said that people at high risk from swine flu will hopefully receive their vaccinations by mid-December.

Those with conditions such as heart disease, cancer, asthma and diabetes are first in line for the jabs, alongside pregnant women and frontline NHS staff - all in all, around 11 million people.

Boxes of GlaxoSmithKline's vaccine have begun arriving in GP surgeries this week, although the Government admits very few will have received them yet, and some patients are concerned that they will not receive the vaccine for several more weeks.

Ian Dalton, national director for flu resilience, said all GPs in England should have their first box of 500 doses in the next three to four weeks.

Mr Dalton said there were millions of people to vaccinate and so it would take some time to get round to everybody. But he said it was hoped at-risk groups would be vaccinated by mid-December.

He said it was "not a surprise" most GPs had not received doses yet. "It's the nature of running a vaccination programme of this type," he said.

The latest figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) reveal an estimated 78,000 new cases of swine flu in England in the past week, up from 53,000 in the week before.

© Independent Television News Limited 2009. All rights reserved.