英国启动甲流疫苗接种工作

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This man had quite an audience in hospital this morning. England’s chief medical officer and the health secretary were looking on as he became one of the first to be vaccinated against swine flu. There will be many more over the coming months. Around 2 million front line health and social care workers are now being offered the vaccine.

“Ok, it’s gonna go in now.”

The aim to stop any transmission of the virus between them and their patients.

“We are looking ahead to a very difficult winter in the National Health Service, there’s still seasonal flu around, we have the added challenge of H1N1 swine flu, so it’s very necessary and the program we're launching today, er, will prevent suffering and in some cases death.”

It’s estimated that currently more than 41,000 people in the UK have swine flu, but since the outbreak, in total 370,000 are thought to have contracted the virus so far, and 108 people have died.

From Monday, GPs will invite the next priority group to have the vaccine; those in the current seasonal flu risk groups, all pregnant women, and contacts of those with compromised immune systems. Health boxes are looking at how to combat the effects of postal strike on GPs' letters being sent out to patients. However it’s unclear how many people will take up the offer with doubts persisting about the vaccine’s safety.

“Well, the swine flu vaccine has been introduced uNPRecedented haste, which hasn't left really much time for testing to see whether it’s safe and whether it actually works. But with the number of swine flu cases climbing in recent weeks, today the virus has led to the closure of this primary school in West Wales. Health officials insist the vaccine is safe and thoroughly tested, in all around 11 million people are in line for the first phase of vaccination.

Nina Nannar, ITV news.