EVERYONE OVER the age of 50 is now advised to get the flu vaccine each year, under new national immunisation guidelines published yesterday.
Previously it was only recommended for those over 65 years or those in at-risk groups such as people with chronic disease. The revised guidelines from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) also state that all women of child-bearing age who have never had chickenpox should have their immunity to the infection checked. If they are not immune they should be vaccinated against chickenpox. Chickenpox adds to the risk of miscarriage and foetal brain damage.
As already reported, the committee has also recommended that two new vaccines be added to the childhood immunisation schedule. They include vaccines against pneumococcal disease, a bacteria that causes meningitis and pneumonia, and hepatitis B, a virus that can lead to liver failure. They will be introduced from September.
Minister for Health Mary Harney, who attended the publication of the new guidelines at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, said she will decide before August 15th whether to introduce a national cervical cancer vaccination programme. Such a programme has been recommended by the immunisation committee and the Health Information and Quality Authority.
"We have to make that decision and the advice is to do it. And the issue is - how quickly can we introduce it? And secondly, will we have the resources to introduce it in the context of the current budgetary situation?" Ms Harney said.
The chairman of the NIAC, Prof Brian Keogh, said that since the national immunisation guidelines were last updated in 2002 there has been an improvement in the rate of childhood vaccines at 24 months from 80 per cent to 90 per cent and this was encouraging.
A 95 per cent rate is the goal.