Quarter of f lu vaccines for children are delayed
Thousands of under-11s face missing out as supplier hit by problems
Flu vaccine delay is putting thousands of children at risk
THOUSANDS of schoolchildren face missing out on their flu vaccines this month because a quarter of the drug doses have not been delivered on time.
A worsening shortage of the nasal spray vaccine means hundreds of primary schools will be forced to cancel flu immunisation sessions scheduled for the coming weeks.
Vaccines for up to one million children could be affected by the delay, although there are no exact figures. All youngsters aged 11 and under are offered the vaccination free on the NHS, with a total of 4.7million in England eligible this year. Most receive the vaccine at school in clinics run by healthcare workers.
But pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca – the sole manufacturer of the children’s vaccine – revealed yesterday that a quarter of this year’s supply had been delayed because of testing problems. News of supply problems emerged last month.
The delay is expected to last several weeks and schools have been temporarily banned from ordering any new vaccine supplies.
It means sessions scheduled for mid-November are likely to be postponed, and several schools have already scrapped planned vaccinations because they can’t obtain supplies.
The shortage comes weeks after the Daily Mail launched a major campaign to boost the uptake of childhood jabs. Public Health Engyoungsters land (PHE) has stressed that sufficient stocks of the Fluenz Tetra vaccine will have been delivered by the end of December, when flu begins circulating.
In the meantime, parents of vulnerable children are being urged to visit their GP instead. GPs have been told to reserve and prioritise stocks for toddlers and children with problems such as asthma.
If there are no supplies of the nasal spray vaccine, they will be given the vaccine injection, which is usually given to adults. But jabs for adults are not as effective in children, particularly as many
hate needles. Children are ‘super-spreaders’ of the flu virus and there are concerns the infection will spread easily to adults if youngsters are left unprotected.
Dr Mary Ramsay, PHE’s head of immunisation, said: ‘We are working with AstraZeneca and NHS England and Improvement to ensure that all eligible children get their flu vaccine as soon as possible.’
An extra 600,000 children will be offered the vaccine this winter after PHE expanded the programme to include all Year Six children, who are aged ten and 11. The programme for vaccinating children against flu began last month and thousands have already been immunised.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘This is not the news we wanted to hear, but we must urge parents not to panic – and not to blame GPs if their surgery is unable to cope with the extra demand.’
Health chiefs blame the delay on AstraZeneca, which is based in Cambridge. AstraZeneca insisted that the testing delay for the Fluenz Tetra vaccine did not relate to the product’s safety or efficiency.
Laurent Abuaf, from AstraZeneca UK, said: ‘We are doing everything possible to minimise the delay of these affected batches.
‘As part of our normal product release process, we need to repeat some tests before a portion of our vaccine supply can be delivered. It is paramount that all batches complete the testing process before they can be supplied.’
The delay does not impact on the injectable flu vaccine, given to adults in GP surgeries and pharmacies. More than 25million people will be offered the free vaccine this year. Last winter more than 5,500 people were admitted to hospital with flu and 1,692 died.