Details of the groups of people that will be given priority access to the first doses of influenza A (H1N1) vaccination have been announced.

At a press conference in London yesterday (13 August 2009), chief medical officer for England Sir Liam Donaldson said that under the swine flu vaccination programme, which is expected to start in October, the first group to receive the vaccine in the UK would be those aged six months to 65 years who are in seasonal flu high-risk groups.

The second group in order of priority will be all pregnant women, followed by household contacts of immunocompromised individuals in third place and finally, those who are over 65 years old in seasonal flu at-risk groups.
These groups have been identified because they are at highest risk of severe illness should they contract the swine flu virus, the Department of Health said.

Over two million frontline health and social care workers will also be asked to have the vaccine at the same time, because they are at increased risk of infection and of transmitting infection to vulnerable patients. In total, almost 11 million people in England will be invited to have the vaccine.

In Scotland, the programme will see a total of 1.4 million people vaccinated in this first stage. No figures have been released for Wales.

The decision on whether to extend the vaccination programme to healthier groups of people, and further guidance to the NHS on the roll-out of the programme, will be made and announced “in due course”, Sir Liam said.
Baxter and GlaxoSmithKline have delivered 0.3 million doses of the vaccine so far, and 54.6 million doses are expected by the end of the year.

The DoH also disclosed details about the two vaccines produced by Baxter and GSK. Each requires two shots and confers over 90 per cent protection, with GSK’s vaccine predicted to last around five years and Baxter’s level of protection thought to be “several years”. Both vaccines allow for a “drift in strains”, Sir Liam explained, which means they have a broader spectrum than the seasonal flu vaccine that is typically used.

However, Baxter has been unable to supply vaccine in the quantities it first expected it would be able to provide, so most of the vaccines used in the immunisation programme will be GSK’s.

There has been a further reduction in the rates of flu-like illness this week (an overall 34 per cent decrease from last week), the DoH said, and in response it plans to scale down the number of call centres. These can be scaled back up during the expected surge in the autumn.

Hospital admissions have also continued to fall and the virus continues to target younger age groups.