Flu epidemic fears dismissed as ‘political opportunism’

The government has defended its flu jab programme, insisting that under-fives were excluded from this year’s vaccinations on medical grounds, rather than as a result of cost cutting.

The rate of flu cases in England almost doubled earlier this month, from 34 people in every 100,000 to 87 in every 100,000 – a faster rise than in 1999, the last time England suffered a flu epidemic.

Labour had criticised the government over the lack of dedicated protection for young children and the decision to axe the annual flu-jab awareness campaign.

Health minister Simon Burns today however accused Labour of stooping to new lows of political opportunism, as The Daily Telegraph reported that the decision not to offer jabs saved £85m.

By calling on the government to reject independent scientific advice, they risk undermining the public confidence in immunisation programmes which is so crucial to their success. Simon Burns

The paper also claimed that doctors were concerned that next week’s return to school could spark the first epidemic for a decade.

An epidemic is defined as the point at which 200 people in every 100,000 are infected in a given week.

While health secretary Andrew Lansley has remained silent, the DoH maintains that Mr Lansley was simply accepting the advice of the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to drop jabs for under-fives.

Looking ahead to the start of the new school term, the DoH added: “Any predictions on flu in 2011 are entirely speculative.

“There could be an increase in cases or just as easily very few cases amongst school children

Meanwhile, Mr Burns brushed off Labour’s charge that the government has made the “wrong judgement”.

“By calling on the government to reject independent scientific advice, they risk undermining the public confidence in immunisation programmes which is so crucial to their success,” Mr Burns said.

“The government is legally obliged to implement the recommendations made by the experts in the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations.

We use an age and risk group-based approach in line with most other countries that have seasonal influenza vaccination programmes. Department of Health

“We have no intention of repealing these laws to allow us to override experts in the manner which Labour suggests.”

Official figures show that the number of people in critical care with confirmed or suspected flu in England stood at 460 at the end of last week – more than double the week before.

Of those, 366 were aged between 16 and 64, 51 were aged 65 and over, 25 were under five and another 17 were aged between five and 15. Nine children are among the 27 people to have died from flu this season so far.

Among the deaths, 24 had swine flu. Three suffered from another strain, flu type B, the Health Protection Agency said.

However, the DoH added: “Our influenza immunisation programme has been designed to protect those particularly at risk from serious disease, either from influenza itself or in whom influenza would make their underlying disease worse.

“This means that we use an age and risk group-based approach in line with most other countries that have seasonal influenza vaccination programmes. We continue to monitor the current situation very carefully and JCVI keeps the policy for seasonal influenza vaccination under review as well.”