THE STOCKS of flu vaccine purchased this winter by the Health Service Executive are only for those in at-risk groups, the executive has stressed.
Those in at-risk groups include pregnant women and those with long-term health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, as well as people aged 65 and over, carers of these groups, and healthcare workers.
However, as the number of cases of swine flu continues to increase some people not in at-risk groups have begun to look for the seasonal flu vaccine, which this year contains protection against swine flu.
The HSE said yesterday “anyone may choose to have the flu vaccine” but those outside the at-risk groups who wish to get the flu vaccine must source the vaccine privately. “The stocks of flu vaccine purchased by the HSE are only for those in the at-risk groups (which are those as recommended by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee),” it said.
Medical card holders in at-risk groups are entitled to get the vaccine free from their GP. However, those in at-risk groups who do not have cards will have to pay GPs for administration of the jab.
Meanwhile, chemists like the Boots chain are offering the vaccine privately to customers for a €30 charge.
Dr Ronan Boland, chair of the GP committee of the Irish Medical Organisation, said his Cork practice received calls from half a dozen patients looking for the flu vaccine yesterday morning but his stocks would run out before the end of this week. “We have already administered significantly more flu vaccine than we did last year and we have had difficulty securing as much vaccine as we felt we needed from the cold chain service,” he said.
He said the flu vaccine was only delivered to GPs every two weeks. “The HSE needs to make every effort to ensure extra supplies of vaccine are made available quickly to GPs as they need them,” he added.
He said there had been a huge surge in GP workload over the past week due to the increased numbers of people presenting with the swine flu virus.
The HSE said if GPs require further supplies they should order them in the usual manner and the HSE national cold chain service will deliver vaccines outside the routine schedule if urgently needed.
About 650,000 seasonal flu vaccines were delivered to the HSE in September and distributed to GPs and HSE sites. There are still 22,000 of these vaccines in stock, the HSE said. It has ordered a further 30,000 vaccines, 5,000 of which have already been delivered with the balance expected by the end of this week.
Meanwhile, for those who got the swine flu vaccine during the national H1N1 immunisation campaign between November and March last, the HSE says they will still be immune to the virus. A quarter of the population were immunised during that campaign.
Some 36 deaths from swine flu have been reported in England so far this winter. There have been none in the Republic but 26 people, including a pregnant woman, died from the virus here during the last wave of infection which ended last year.