Swine flu vaccination programme starts

  NHS Hospitals will begin vaccinating frontline healthcare workers and their patients who fall into at risk categories against swine flu from Wednesday.  The vaccination programme will be rolled out over the next few weeks with GP surgeries receiving deliveries from Monday (26 October).

The following at risk groups will be prioritised in the following order
1.    People aged over six months and under 65 years in current seasonal flu vaccine clinical at risk groups
2.    All pregnant women
3.    Household contacts of people with compromised immune systems e.g. people in regular close contact with patients  on treatment for cancer
4.    People aged 65 and over in the current seasonal flu vaccine clinical at risk groups . This does not include otherwise healthy over 65s, since they appear to have some natural immunity to the virus.

Further Details available on the NHS Choices Website