Swine flu jabs start today but come too late for Scottish victim No 16

Published on Tuesday 20 October 2009 22:07

SCOTLAND is entering a key moment in tackling the swine flu pandemic with its vaccination plans, experts said yesterday, as a new death linked to the virus was announced.

The death of the 59-year-old woman from Fife, who had underlying health problems, brings the total in Scotland to 16, with more than 100 deaths across the UK.

Today marks the start of the swine flu vaccination programme, with the first jabs targeted at priority groups including pregnant women, those with chronic illnesses and NHS staff, as part of efforts to vaccinate 1.3 million people by Christmas.

Professor Tony Nash, director of the Centre for Infectious Diseases at Edinburgh University, said the campaign signalled a "vital" point in dealing with swine flu and reducing deaths.

"Like any infectious disease that is likely to cause dangerous infection, if you have a method of controlling it then you should deliver it," he said.

Last week, figures showed that 64 people were admitted to hospital in Scotland with swine flu complications – the highest weekly total seen during the pandemic.

Vaccine supplies have been distributed around Scotland, with at-risk hospital patients and staff getting the first jabs.

The Scottish Government said "limited" supplies were spread across boards, but the number of doses was set to increase in the coming weeks.

Next week, supplies will start to arrive with GPs, so that jabs can be given to other priority groups, including pregnant women.

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon will see the first vaccines being given at the New Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow today.

The vaccines being used are Pandemrix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, and Celvapan from Baxter International.

Dr Dean Marshall, chair of the British Medical Association's Scottish GPs committee, said surgeries were waiting to find out how many doses they would receive. He said not knowing made it difficult for doctors to plan extra clinics and contact patients.

"Plenty of information has gone out, but until you start to see it arriving, you are not really going to know," said Dr Marshall.

Last week, England's chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson said a postal strike would be "extremely unwelcome", because GPs often posted appointment letters to patients.

But the Scottish Government said it had arrangements in place to deal with the strike.

A spokeswoman said:

"Each GP has contact details for their at-risk groups and will have a note of who in their surgery is needing a vaccine quickly.

"They will have a home phone number and a mobile number. A lot of GPs don't use letters for alerts like this, and use texts."

She said if a postal strike was having a bigger impact, doctors could use local advertising to get patients to come forward.

TOP OF THE LIST

THE first groups to receive the swine flu jab are:

&149 People aged six months to 65 years with chronic conditions;

&149 All pregnant women;

&149 Household contacts of people with compromised immune systems;

&149 People aged over 65 in at-risk groups due to chronic health conditions;

&#149 Front-line health and social care workers.

UK governments have ordered vaccines to cover the entire population. A decision on whether further roll-out is needed will be taken at a later stage.