Selasa, 29 Mei 2012

Children could soon be given annual flu vaccinations at school to prevent spread of illness across all age groups

Children could soon be given annual flu vaccinations at school to prevent spread of illness across all age groups

  • Experts advising Government say the vaccine should be given to everyone from five to 17 on the NHS
  • Vaccine will not be offered until 2014 at the earliest

By Sophie Borland

PUBLISHED: 10:54 EST, 29 May 2012 | UPDATED: 10:54 EST, 29 May 2012


All children could soon be given annual flu vaccinations at school, it has emerged.

A panel of experts advising the Government say the vaccine should be given to everyone from the ages of five to 17 on the NHS.

At present, it is only offered to the over 65s, pregnant women and anyone with an underlying health condition such as asthma or diabetes.

Advise: A panel of experts say a nasal flu vaccine should be given to everyone from the ages of five to 17 on the NHS

Advise: A panel of experts say a nasal flu vaccine should be given to everyone from the ages of five to 17 on the NHS

But the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) believes that immunising children would help prevent the spread of the illness across all age groups.

Many youngsters catch flu at school or nursery and pass it on to family members, including pregnant women and grandparents who may be more vulnerable.

But the experts recommend that the vaccine is not offered until 2014 at the earliest to allow enough time to buy in stocks and launch awareness campaigns.

They believe children should be given a nasal spray - rather than an injection - as this is safer and more effective for younger age groups.

It would be administered by school nurses - and vaccinations would likely take place in early autumn when other patients receive their jabs.

Although this winter’s ‘flu season’ was mild, last year’s was particularly severe and led to 474 deaths.

At a meeting held last month, the JCVI concluded that ‘influenza vaccination of children is likely to be a cost effective public health intervention.

The minutes of the meeting - uncovered by GP Magazine - said it could ‘appreciably lower the public health impact of influenza in the UK'.

Dr George Kassianos, a GP in Berkshire who sits on the Royal College of GPs’ immunisation committee, said: ‘It will be beneficial to children and will benefit other patients as well.

‘If we can reduce the infection rate among children we can reduce the morb idity and death rate in the community generally, and especially among the elderly.’

The exact costs of offering the jabs to all children is not known but it would likely run into several millions of pounds.

But the experts believe that overall, the NHS would actually save money as fewer people would become ill and need treatment.

A Department of Health spokesman said that committee was not recommending that the jabs were offered immediately, as a number of issues still needed to be considered.

They added: ‘Extending the vaccination programme to healthy children would be a huge undertaking, increasing the number of people who get the vaccine, so it is important that we get this decision absolutely right.’


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This is all for money! We really do NOT need these. We are becoming to soft as a race and with all these vaccinations, medicines etc we are becoming more succeptable to disease and illness.

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I would like to know what it actually is they want to get into everyones system. Thety create scares year after year yet not many fall for it. They must have tons of the stuff.

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not all children will be able to have this because of allergy to eggs also dont they think that kids have enough vaccinations over the course of a few years. instead of introducing this which will be forced onto parent who may not want the kids vaccinated accept flu is around every year and inevitably someone somewhere dies from it. i think before they start vaccinating for flu maybe start by introducing a chicken pox vaccination as this is far more serious for children than flu those that need the flu jabs/nasal spray get it already from the Gps. i also think they need to bring back tb vaccinations. i am not against vaccinations as my child is upto date and has a flu vaccine every year but this should be upto parent choice not government.

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They start with this crud i will be pulling my kids out of school!!! anyone who comes near me or my kids with these eugenics vaccines, expect to get attacked :-)

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No school will be given my child it he is healthy and has had flu once in eight years maybe if parents didnt send in sick kids it wouldnt spread.

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And yet they've stopped the TB vaccination for most children.

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No, no and NO again to flu vaccines! Have we forgotten already about all the people who developed narcolepsy from the swine flu vaccine?

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And these "experts" are from which pharmaceutical company?? This is an appalling idea as it will likely come into conflict with parents who chose not to have their children vaccinated for a whole host of reasons from worry about side effects (narcolepsy was caused in many children by the swine flu jab) to simply wishing for their children to build strong immune systems without interference by dubious chemical onslaughts. In the US, the authorities, accompanied by the police, have been known to forcibly vaccinate children whose parents had refused consent. I hope such an orwellian state of affairs can never come to the UK. But the heavy-duty pressure already put on teenage girls to have the cervical cancer jab in school makes me fear for our children!

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