Health ministry: Flu jabs are on the way

Dr Oygar said that the Pharmaceutical and Pharmacy Department has started work on supplying flu and pneumonia vaccines.

She noted that 2,000 flu vaccines, which will be donated by Turkey’s Public Health Institution, will not arrive in the country until November, so the Pharmaceutical and Pharmacy Department decided to purchase 1,000 vaccines in the meantime, which she said are expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

Recalling delays to the shipment of flu vaccines last year, Dr Oygar said that 2,000 flu jabs had to be sent back because they could not be used.

“This may have been because many people obtain the vaccine from private pharmacies due to the late arrival of the [state purchased] vaccines,” she said.

Dr Oygar said that more flu jabs will be ordered if the ones acquired are not enough.

She explained that patients with chronic diseases, especially dialysis, organ transplant recipients, active cancer and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) patients will be given “priority” to get the flu vaccine.

As for pneumonia vaccines, Dr Oygar underlined that Turkey also does not have the “PPA23” vaccine and that “therefore it cannot be donated to our country”.

Pointing out that the Pharmaceutical and Pharmacy Department “continues to work to supply the pneumonia vaccine”, Dr Oygar added that officials there have requested offers from companies to supply the pneumonia vaccine “but no-one has responded yet”.

The Cyprus Turkish Medical Association (KTTB) has noted that “in principle, the flu vaccine is administered annually in November to anyone aged six months and over who wants to have it”. The KTTB recommends the vaccine for people who fall into the “defined risk groups for influenza, those who care for these people and ultimately anyone who wants to be protected from the flu”.

Meanwhile two respiratory diseases specialists have warned that there could be a big rise in contagious respiratory diseases other than Covid-19 this winter.

Dr Havva Yeşildağlı and Dr Emine Kamiloğlu said that there were fewer cases of disease such as flu in the winters of 2020 and 2021 due to the effect of Covid-19 restrictions such as social distancing and mask wearing, but that the lifting of almost all rules means that this trend will be reversed.

They also revealed the outcome of a joint study they carried out on Covid-19 patients in the TRNC, which showed that the mortality rate in the unvaccinated group was three times higher than that of fully vaccinated patients or those who did not receive a booster dose during the recommend timeframe.