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Health Minister To Take Flu Jab to Launch Drive
DUBAI — The UAE Health Minister Dr Hanif Hassan is scheduled to be the first person to get the flu shot on November 8 when the health ministry launches its H1N1 vaccination campaign at the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research in Abu Dhabi.
A few members of top brass of the ministry are also expected to volunteer for the first jabs, in a move considered to help boost people’s confidence in the new vaccine.
As reported by Khaleej Times, the ministry received, earlier this week, the first batch of GlaxoSmithKline’s 40,000 vaccines out of the promised 90,000 to be delivered in 2009. Though the GSK vaccine has been approved for use in the European Union, the ministry registered the drug for local use this week only after studying a safety dossier presented by the company.
Sources at the ministry said it had changed its original plan and ordered for the intramuscular vaccine instead of the nasal spray version to ensure safety of the drug.
“We studied reports and decided that the vaccine administered through an injection was safer than the spray that carried strains of the live virus,” said an official.
The inactivated H1N1 intramuscular vaccine uses killed virus and is available in single dose or multi-dose vials. The other version contains live but weakened virus and is administered through a nasal spray.
An action plan to administer the vaccine was also finalised during several meetings held at the ministry this week with priority being accorded to pilgrims proceeding for Haj.
“The plan has been finalised and the health authorities have already designated health centres that will carry out the vaccination,” said another source. Training workshops for nurses and doctors to familiarise them with the vaccination process will also be held I the coming week.
Meanwhile, the ministry has also started administering the annual flu and meningitis vaccines free of cost to pilgrims as part of its standard preventive measures required for the pilgrimage. Last month, Oman became the first country in the region to start the H1N1 campaign followed by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
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