18th January

Swine flu vaccine is to be made available to any islanders who may want it – at a cost.

The States Influenza Pandemic Expert Advisory Group has agreed that the official States vaccination programme will not be extended at this time, but that the vaccine can be made available, privately, to anyone who requests it from their GP, as with the seasonal flu vaccine.

GP surgeries will advise patients on the cost of the vaccine and a fee for administering it.

Dr Stephen Bridgman, Director of Public Health, said:

‘Some individuals who are not in the high risk groups and employers have wanted the vaccine for some time.

‘We have agreed that we have sufficient stocks of vaccine available to allow us to make it available to all.

‘The charge has been introduced for those outside of the high risk groups because this is not part of our agreed vaccination programme, which has been targeted at the groups considered to be at highest risk.

‘People can now contact their GP surgery direct to arrange for vaccination if they wish.’

He said that he would still encourage people in the high risk groups, in particular, to take up the opportunity of vaccination if they have not yet done so. People who have been invited to come forward for vaccination will still only pay the charge for administering the vaccine.

Guernsey has been securing vaccine stocks from the NHS in the UK as and when it has been considered appropriate.

Dr Bridgman said that take up of the vaccine in the island had been relatively successful and outstripped average figures in the UK at about a third of priority groups.

Figures provided by the GP surgeries revealed vaccination rates at 53% of the first at risk priority group – predominantly those under 65 with pre-existing medical conditions, and pregnant women; 59% of over-65s identified as being at greater risk; and 47.5% of children under five years old.

He said:

‘About half the people we invited for vaccination have come forward. That could be seen as a success and I am sure that many of them were influenced in their decision by what they had read and heard about the Swine Flu illness.’

Dr Bridgman said that he believed another ‘spike’ in flu cases in the island was possible come the end of the winter, but reported cases of flu-like illness have fallen to the low levels seen during the late summer and autumn at around 40 cases a week.

At the peak of flu-like illness in December, doctors were seeing more than 300 people in a week.