Health News
Czech government approves swine flu vaccination for children
Dec 2, 2009, 9:20 GMT
Prague - The Czech Republic's caretaker government Wednesday approved an expansion of its voluntary H1N1 flu vaccination programme to children between 10 and 17 years of age.
Vaccines against the so-called swine flu will be available from next week to some 66,000 children with diagnoses such as chronic heart and kidney disease, cancer and asthma, Health Minister Dana Juraskova said.
Health authorities began vaccinating selected adults against the H1N1 flu last week. However, the interest in the programme, which aims to vaccinate one-tenth of the population has been low, the CTK news agency reported on Tuesday.
Many health-care staff declined to be vaccinated, arguing that the programme came too late to be effective. To health authorities' frustration, others have feared the vaccine's alleged side effects.
The Czech Republic's swine flu death toll has climbed to 11 as of Wednesday, a spokesman for the Health Ministry said.
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