A VACCINATION programme to protect young children against swine flu in Suffolk is set to be accelerated in the New Year.

Naomi Gornall

A VACCINATION programme to protect young children against swine flu in Suffolk is set to be accelerated in the New Year.

Some of the GP surgeries in the county, which have already finished vaccinating people in the first at-risk groups, have started vaccinating children between the ages of six months and five years.

Now all these family doctor practices will start to contact and vaccinate these children.

NHS Suffolk's flu director, Dr Brian Keeble, said: “Swine flu has had less public attention recently, but it is still a major threat to public health. We don't know whether it will continue to reduce in numbers of people affected or not.

“Young children are still very much at risk, and when they are infected some suffer severely, so this vaccination programme for the under fives is very important. Having your child vaccinated greatly improves his or her protection from the disease, but also helps to make it less likely the illness will be spread between children. Please do respond when you are contacted by your doctor's surgery asking for you to bring your children in for vaccination.”

This age group has been identified as the next priority group for the vaccine because high numbers from this age group have been admitted to hospital after falling ill with swine flu. A significant proportion of these had to be admitted to critical care and there have also been some deaths nationally.

If your child is in this age range, you will receive information about swine flu vaccinations as soon as possible over the next few weeks.

For more information on the vaccine visit http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Pandemic-flu/Pages/Vaccine.aspx or speak to your GP.