Swine flu jab for all after virus toll alert
Related Articles
Saturday July 04 2009
EVERYONE in the country is shortly to be offered a free swine flu vaccination as health authorities brace themselves for a worst-case scenario of up to 100,000 new cases a week.
The vaccines -- which will cost the Exchequer €88m -- will be administered either through GPs or a network of 121 swine flu clinics.
They will be set up nationwide as soon as sufficient amounts of the vaccine are available in late summer or early autumn, the Health Services Executive (HSE) confirmed last night.
The clinics will be provided in public buildings and sports halls. They will be open 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to deal with the growing pandemic.
The Department of Health has so-called "sleeping contracts" with pharmaceutical giants SmithGlaxoKline and Baxter Pharmaceuticals for the vaccine.
The latest Swine Flu news updates can be found in our Swine Flu section in Health.
They will manufacture 7.7 million doses of the vaccine for Ireland. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the flu to be a Level 6 pandemic last month.
The vaccines are being cultivated and will be administered on a phased-in basis beginning in the late summer over a number of weeks, the HSE told the Irish Independent last night. Patients considered high risk -- such as the elderly, young children or those with underlying medical conditions or respiratory ailments -- will be vaccinated first.
They will be followed by healthcare workers and others at an elevated risk of contracting the H1N1 virus.
The move comes as the WHO confirmed that the pandemic was now out of control worldwide and could not be contained.
Health authorities in Britain fear there will be 100,000 new cases there a day by the end of July -- making it the worst outbreak in Europe.
There are more than 7,400 confirmed cases in the UK, 700 in Spain and around 300 in France.
Ireland, however, is several weeks behind the UK in terms of the rapid-fire spread of the flu and the HSE believes the incidence rate won't be as bad here due to our small population.
"The worst-case scenario is 100,000 cases a week but we're nowhere near there yet," an HSE spokeswoman said.
Chances
But the Department of Health isn't taking any chances and "the intention is to go ahead" with the vaccinations, she said.
"We've been planning this since April for any eventuality. It is an evolving situation and it's under review every day," she added.
There are 51 confirmed cases of swine flu here, including a young schoolgirl in Co Roscommon who is being treated at home with anti-viral medication after she was diagnosed with the virus earlier this week.
She, along with 28 other pupils at the Roxboro National School in Derrane, Co Roscommon, have been advised to stay away from each other for the next week to prevent the virus from incubating.
School principal Michael Cleary said none of the other students had shown symptoms of the virus."Everything is under control now, thank goodness," he said.
In the meantime, the HSE is advising people to take precautions when they are out and about and to wash hands frequently and cover their mouths if they cough or sneeze to prevent transmission of the virus.
"It's really about being conscious and cautious," a spokeswoman said.
Swine flu has symptoms which include fever, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, body aches, chills, headache and tiredness, vomiting and diarrhoea.
- Allison Bray and Eimear Ni Bhraonain
