Flu jab programme enters fifth stage

FIVE PEOPLE, one of whom is in critical conditions, were in intensive care yesterday with H1N1 flu as the fourth stage of the vaccination programme got underway.
Vaccines as of yesterday were made available to all persons aged six months to 65, regardless of whether they are in high risk groups or not. 
Immunisation is also still available to people over 65 who are in high risk groups.
“Clinical studies have shown that healthy older people have partial immunity to H1N1, developed from previous instances of flu strains, which were similar,” said Dr Chrystalla Hadjianastasiou, head of the special committee on H1N1.
Currently five people are being treated in the island’s intensive care units for H1N1 and complications arising from it. 
The condition of one of these is deemed critical.  Four of the five currently in intensive care are from high-risk sectors groups.  Of the five, four have been hospitalised in Limassol’s intensive care unit and one in Nicosia’s.
So far, on both sides of the island, five people have died from H1N1 and complications arising from it. 
The spread of H1N1 has declined in the last few weeks.  However, authorities are expecting a second wave of the epidemic as this is the typical pattern followed by the spread of epidemic infections, they said.
Younger people have been given priority in the immunisation programme run on the south of the island on account of the partial immunity older people have.  Also, people with pre-existing health conditions and weak immune systems, who fall into high risk groups of the population, have been given priority.
The first phase of the immunisation programme made the vaccine available to people in high risk groups between the ages of 15-45.  The second stage made the vaccine available to all persons in high risk groups regardless of age.  The third phase made the vaccine available to all persons under the age of 25, and all persons in high risks groups. 
In the fifth and final stage of the programme the vaccine will be made freely available to all persons regardless of age and whether they are in high risk sectors of the population or not.  No date has as yet been set for the commencement of the fifth stage of the programme.
So far approximately 15,000 people have been vaccinated in the Republic.

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