The swine flu virus is targeting the young, and not the elderly, experts say Children under five were excluded from this year’s flu vaccination programme on medical and not cost grounds, the Department of Health has insisted.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley took advice from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the DoH said.
The JCVI dropped a recommendation to repeat last year’s jabs for children in revised advice in July, officials said.
Labour has criticised a lack of protection for young children.
It has also been critical of the axing of the annual flu-jab awareness campaign.
The Daily Telegraph said the decision not to offer jabs was a cost-cutting measure that saved £85m.
But the DoH denied MrLansley had “cancelled” the programme.
“Our influenza immunisation programme has been designed to protect those particularly at risk from serious disease, either from influenza itself or in whom influenza would make their underlying disease worse,” the DoH said.
“This means that we use an age and risk group-based approach in line with most other countries that have seasonal influenza vaccination programmes. We continue to monitor the current situation very carefully and JCVI keeps the policy for seasonal influenza vaccination under review as well.”
And shadow health secretary John Healey accused ministers of leaving children at risk.
He told the Daily Mail: “The serious problem lies with the groups that are most at risk, like children. That has come because the government axed the annual advertising campaign and they cancelled the flu jab plan for the under-fives.
“The thing about this swine flu is that it doesn’t go for elderly people, it doesn’t go for anyone over the age of 60”
Professor John Oxford Virologist
“The health secretary has been silent. The only attention he’s paid to preparations for this winter’s flu outbreak was to axe the autumn advertising campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated and make them aware of the risks.”
But Mr Lansley has insisted that the publicity campaign was not needed.
“There is no additional merit in a vaccination advertising campaign for the general population when there is already a targeted approach for those who need to be called,” he said.
“We urge those who have been contacted to respond positively.”
Figures published by the Health Protection Agency on Friday showed the number of people in critical care with confirmed or suspected flu in England had risen to 460 – more than double the number of a week before.
Of those, 366 were aged between 16 and 64, 51 were aged 65 and over, 26 were under five and another 17 were aged between five and 15.
Of the 27 people to have died from flu this season so far, nine were children. Among the fatalities, 24 had swine flu. Three suffered from another strain, flu type B.
This year’s vaccine protects against H1N1, the same strain of flu behind last year’s swine flu pandemic, and also protects against the H3N2 and B strain.
Mr Lansley told the BBC that people should not be concerned about the vaccine.
“People get confused about swine flu being in the seasonal flu vaccine because they have said if I’ve had swine flu previously I don’t need it, or there were some people who had their own concerns about the swine flu vaccine,” he said.
“The seasonal flu vaccine is decided internationally by the World Health Organisation (WHO), we can see now that this swine flu, plus influenza B plus another flu strain is circulating. The flu vaccine is an effective vaccination against that.
“People who are at risk, and indeed pregnant women and over-65s, should be taking up the offer of vaccination, they have been contacted by their GP surgeries. People should really protect themselves and in the long run, others too.”
Professor John Oxford, a virologist at Barts and the Royal London, said the current statistics for flu cases were “unsettling”.
He said: “The thing about this swine flu is that it doesn’t go for elderly people, it doesn’t go for anyone over the age of 60. It’s going for youth and that’s a rather unusual situation that we’re all grasping with.
“The vaccine campaign in the past have concentrated on the over-65s. From now on they’re going to have to concentrate as well on youth, and young people are the most difficult to persuade either that they’ve got something or to go into their doctor and get something.”
Prof Oxford said he did not think the number of cases would drop soon, and that things would “get worse” over the next week.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.