Flu fear as HSE admits vaccine mismatch

HSE chiefs have admitted their anti-flu vaccine is for a different strain of the illness than the one which has hit the country, prompting fears a major outbreak will send the trolley crisis spiralling.

With Ireland in the grip of an eight-week flu season, HSE director general Tony O’Brien warned of particular “risks” as he made the revelation while giving evidence to the Oireachtas health committee on the bed shortage in hospitals which saw more than 600 patients forced onto trolleys and chairs last week.

“An added complication is that the particular strain of flu which has traversed the Atlantic, as it always does each year, is not the strain of flu that was predicted and therefore is not the strain of flu for which we vaccinated the health workers and the general population, so there are particular risks in that area,” said Mr O’Brien.