The National Board of Health has released the list of people who will be vaccinated against Influenza A H1N1.
In addition to doctors and health care workers, pregnant women and those over the age of 3 with chronic illnesses will also be vaccinated. The health board has decided that patients with illnesses such as Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases will be covered by the public vaccination programme.Outside of at-risk groups, key employees due to be vaccinated include police and emergency services, diplomats stationed abroad, pharmacy employees and staff at DR and TV2 broadcasters.
An estimated 350,000 people are included in the board’s list of key employees. The rest of the 1.55 million doses of vaccine ordered by the state will be used to inoculate people at risk of developing complications related to the virus.
In all, 28 percent of the population will be vaccinated.
Many other countries have opted to vaccinate their entire populations, but the Board of Health made its decision to vaccinate only a limited number of people based on the health risk of being vaccinated as well as the cost of purchasing and administering the extra vaccines.
After the number of cases during the Southern Hemisphere’s flu season was lower than expected, the health board stressed that it doesn’t expect H1N1 to affect people more than the ordinary flu.
Even with fears of an epidemic abating, the Board of Health said it was not standing down from its preparations.
‘We’ve said all along that any prediction is uncertain, but the most likely is that we will be struck by an epidemic sometime during the flu season,’ board director Jesper Fisker said.
Flu season officially begins on 1 October.
The list of key workers comes after weeks of deliberations by the Board of Health over which types of employees would be necessary to keep the country running in the event of an epidemic.
The list was solidified in September and has since been approved by the Health Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office.
During its deliberations, the Board of Health considered petitions from public agencies and other organisations to be included on the list of key employees.
In addition to the groups approved, others not offered the vaccine included lorry drivers and journalists at news organisations with small reporting staffs.
