Britain prepares swine flu jabs for entire population

BRITISH health chiefs are preparing to vaccinate the entire population against swine flu, it emerged yesterday, while Thailand has opened a pilot vaccine plant fearing “hundreds of thousands” of cases.

In what would be the biggest vaccination programme of the past 50 years, British experts are already drawing up a priority list of patients to be given immunity before the bug becomes more virulent.

It comes after the first British patient without underlying health problems died after contracting swine flu, taking the number of swine flu-linked deaths in Britain to 15.

Peter Holden, the British Medical Association’s lead negotiator on swine flu, told The Sunday Times: “The high risk groups will be done at GPs’ surgeries.

“People are still making decisions over this, but we want to get cracking before we get a second wave, which is traditionally far more virulent.”

He added: “If the virus does [mutate], it can get a lot more nasty, and the idea is to give people immunity.

“But the sheer logistics of dealing with 60 million people can’t be underestimated.”

The latest swine flu-linked death happened at Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, NHS East of England.

Chief medical officer Liam Donaldson warned that other healthy people were at risk of dying from the disease.

He said: “As with all flu-like viruses, some people are at higher risk than others. Unfortunately, people who are otherwise healthy could also become seriously ill or, sadly, die.”

Meanwhile, Thailand’s swine flu death toll rose to 18 yesterday as the government confirmed three more fatalities and opened a vaccine plant to prevent tens of thousands of infections.

The latest confirmed deaths from the A(H1N1) virus were of a 45-year-old man in the central province of Ayutthaya, a 19-year-old man in southern Krabi province and a 24-year-old woman in Bangkok.

The woman was described as overweight, as was the older man, who also suffered from kidney failure, high blood pressure, a lung infection and leptospirosis, according to the public health ministry.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said that Thai people “should not be complacent but we will not panic”, before he travelled south of the capital to open the country’s first swine flu vaccination pilot plant.

“Anyone who does not have immunity could be infected,” he said. “I am convinced that our confirmed cases could reach tens of thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands.”

The first two million doses of vaccine were expected to be ready by January at the latest, public health minister Witthaya Keawparadai said.

Across the country 247 new cases of swine flu were confirmed, bringing the total to 3,555.