Flu jabs planned for all Britons

The government has announced plans to vaccinate everyone in the UK in the event of a flu pandemic.

Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson announced that the Department of Health is inviting manufacturers to tender for a contract to supply pandemic flu vaccine.

Sir Liam said that approximately 120 million vaccines would be needed – the equivalent of two doses per person. However, the vaccine could only be developed once the exact strain of the pandemic is known.

The government said that the proposal to purchase the capacity to develop a vaccine in advance would ensure that an effective vaccine is available in the UK as quickly as possible after a pandemic breaks out.

The announcement was made as part of the government’s updated version of the Pandemic Influenza Contingency plan. The plan includes a series of measures aimed at tackling an outbreak of bird flu in the UK. These include quarantine measures, plans to restrict travel and the stockpiling of anti-viral drugs.

Thousands of information packs will also be sent to GPs to help them prepare for a possible outbreak, under the plan.

The government has stockpiled 2.5 million doses of anti-viral drug, Tamiflu, although 14 million doses have been ordered.

Sir Liam said: "We can't prevent a flu pandemic, but we can reduce its impact.

"One of the most effective countermeasures we can take against a flu pandemic is to make sure we develop and manufacture a vaccine as quickly as possible.”

Commenting on the government’s plans, Liberal Democrats health spokesperson Steve Webb, said: “The situation could be much worse than the Government's plans allow for.

"On what the Government itself calls a 'reasonable' worst case scenario, we must be prepared for half the population becoming ill and over 100,000 deaths.

"If a pandemic occurs this winter, when we do not have enough stocks of antiviral drugs, or if the attack rate is worse than 1 in 4 people, the Government must be clear as to which key workers should get priority treatment.

"There should be an audit of NHS contingency plans to examine how well local services and critical care capacity could cope with a pandemic.”

It is feared that tens of thousands of people could die in the UK if a flu pandemic breaks out. Experts believe that a pandemic could emerge if avian flu in birds mutates into a new virus, which can pass between humans.

The H5N1 strain of avian flu is deadly to humans and has killed more than 60 people in southeast Asia in the last two years.

The virus has now been found in Europe, where it was recently discovered in Turkey, Romania and Russia.

Bird flu was also confirmed in Greece this week, but it is not yet known if it is the H5N1 strain.

(KMcA/SP)