November 19, 2009

expert reaction to roll-out of swine flu vaccine to healthy children aged between 6 months and 5 years

The extension of the vaccination programme to this age group, announced by the Department of Health, was expected and is part of the normal vaccination roll-out programme.

Prof Terence Stephenson, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said:

“The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health strongly recommends that parents should get their children vaccinated if they are offered the vaccine. We would also like to emphasise the importance of children’s doctors and nurses being vaccinated too, not least to prevent passing the infection on to their patients who may be vulnerable children with serious diseases.”

Dr David Elliman, Consultant in Community Child Health at Great Ormond Street Hospital, said:

“There is a lot of logic to this. The hospital admission rate in this group is particularly high and of course they have no previous exposure, unlike the elderly who have a certain degree of protection without vaccination. It seems a sensible next step.”

Prof Robert Dingwall, formerly Director, Institute for Science and Society at the University of Nottingham, said:

“This is a logical extension of the vaccination programme, and a good example of the considered approach being taken by the UK government. You cannot give 60 million people a vaccination all at once so an approach that progressively brings in different groups, reflecting their relative risk and benefit, helps to manage the workload for GPs, while ensuring that the population is increasingly protected. It is also a responsible use of public funds in that decisions can be made at each point about whether there is sufficient clinical evidence to justify vaccinating additional groups. This means that vaccines are not wasted and that GPs do not spend more time than necessary on this work at the expense of their commitments to other patients and their illnesses.”