Children between the ages of six months and five years* are being vaccinated against swine flu in Suffolk, the programme will accelerate into the new year.

Some of the GP’s surgeries which have already finished vaccinating people in the first at-risk groups have started vaccinating children in this age group in Suffolk. Now all these family doctor practices will start to contact and vaccinate these children. Agreement has been reached locally between NHS Suffolk and the Local Medical Committee on the support available to the surgeries to carry out this major exercise.

NHS Suffolk’s Flu Director, Dr. Brian Keeble, said: “Swine Flu has had less public attention recently, but it is still a major threat to public health. We don’t know whether it will continue to reduce in numbers of people affected or not. Young children are still very much at risk, and when they are infected some suffer severely, so this vaccination programme for the under fives is very important. Having your child vaccinated greatly improves his or her protection from the disease, but also helps to make it less likely the illness will be spread between children. Please do respond when you are contacted by your doctor’s surgery asking for you to bring your children in for vaccination.”

This age group has been identified as the next priority group for the vaccine because higher numbers from this age group have been admitted to hospital after falling ill with swine flu. A significant proportion of these had to be admitted to critical care and, sadly, there have also been some deaths nationally.

The decision to vaccinate this group is supported by advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation – the UK’s independent advisory board on vaccines. If your child is in this age range, you will receive information about swine flu vaccinations as soon as possible over the next few weeks. You should then make sure your children are protected by getting them vaccinated.

For more information on the vaccine please visit http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Pandemic-flu/Pages/Vaccine.aspx or speak to your GP.

Notes
* Children who should be vaccinated are those born between the 1st of January 2005 and 7th June 2009. Children who become six months old during the time of this vaccination programme will also be included.

Issued by the NHS Suffolk Communications Team on 01473 770014
For more information about NHS Suffolk visit www.suffolk.nhs.uk