| Stocks of vaccines at NHS depleted due to bird flu scare |
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It has not even been a month since ministers assured that government had enough supplies to vaccinate everyone at risk from flu virus, and reports have come in that the National Health Service has almost exhausted the stock of this year’s flu vaccine.
The Department of Health (DoH) was forced to intimate every general practitioner (GP) on Monday that 400,000 “contingency” doses of the vaccine were depleted. This is notwithstanding the fact that the annual flu vaccine would not help even if a pandemic virus had broken out. The stocks held by the Department of Health will fully go in a few days.
The elderly and people in poor health are given being priority for the remainder of the vaccinations. This includes everyone over the age of 65 and people with chest complaints, asthma, diabetes or poor immune systems are entitled to free vaccine on the NHS, and so are their carers. Normally, the highest rate of flu incidence is seen in December and January. Reportedly, around 15 million doses have been ordered by GPs and the DoH.
Dr. David Salisbury, the head of immunisation at the department said: “We will have no contingency stocks left in the next few days. We are writing today to all GPs in England informing them of the situation and asking them to make sure that only those people who are entitled are given the vaccine.”
More people than usual got themselves vaccinated after alarm bells started ringing that UK could be at risk of a pandemic of avian flu.
“Patients will feel that they have been let down. The flu campaign is designed to protect the old and the sick in advance of the flu season. GPs were told that there would be enough vaccine and now it seems this is not the case. There is no evidence that family doctors have been using the vaccine inappropriately,” accused Laurence Buckman, deputy chairman of the BMA (British Medical Association) GPs Committee.
The doctors have ordered for an additional supply of 200,000 doses for delivery in January. Talks are on for another delivery next month. Each vaccination costs £8.
This year over 1 million doses were ordered for persons over 65 and about three million for people who are susceptible to flu.
"We are aware of some current difficulties experienced by practices in obtaining adequate supplies of flu vaccines and that contingency plans are being invoked. As a practising GP, I am sure that, by and large, all flu vaccines are being given only to high-risk patients. As a college we agree with a targetted approach to immunisation," said Dr Mayur Lakhani, the chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners,
However, UK has cases of flu at the moment with incidence being well normal. Only 12 cases per 100,000 of the population have been recorded this year.
Posted
on : Tue, 22 Nov 2005 10:25 GMT | General News
By : Rob Davis
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