Spain’s Swine Flu Vaccination Programme Starts Today
Today sees the start of the vaccination campaign against swine flu throughout Spain.
The vaccine will initially be available at local health centres, to at-risk groups, which make up around 20 per cent of the population.
Among the first to get the new vaccine will be front-line health workers and those working in other essential services, such as the police, firemen and ambulance crews.
Also high on the list of those at risk are pregnant women and those with pre-existing conditions, including heart patients and those with respiratory problems, among others.
The government has acquired 37 million doses of the vaccine, 10 million of which are destined to this first at risk group.
Depending on the latest medical advice, which still seems divided on whether one or two vaccinations are necessary, the government has stockpiled enough vaccine to treat around 60 per cent of the population.
The most optimistic forecasts from the Department of Health, suggest that the infection rate will peak in early December, with more than 400 infections per 100,000 head of population.
That figure compares to an infection rate of just over 327 per 100,000 in the first week of November with swine flu accounting for 99 per cent of all flu infections, which has so far claimed the lives of 88 people in Spain.
Spain’s Health Minister, Jiménez Trinidad, has said that all those at risk should make sure they get vaccinated and that health professionals should be actively ensuring they do so.
The Minister also reiterated that the vaccine had been proven to be safe and to have no known side-effects, other than those, which affect a small minority of the population, as with previous flu vaccines.