Prescribing Advice for GPs

Influenza immunisation programme 2010/11

June 8, 2010 at 9:48 am | In Prescribing Extra - Other |  Print | No Comments

The Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health has written (PDF) to colleagues within the NHS to provide details of the recommended influenza immunisation programme for 2010/11.

The letter provides details of the uptake for the seasonal and H1N1 vaccines for the 2009/10 campaign and also outlines the programme for 2010/11 providing details of:

• Target risk groups for seasonal influenza vaccine
• Immunisation of frontline health and social care staff
• Immunisation of poultry workers
• Clinical risk groups for the 2010/11 programme

It is also noted that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended that the seasonal vaccine for 2010/11 should be a trivalent vaccine that includes an H1N1-like component.

Finally, the letter contains four helpful tables:

• Table 1 in Annex 1 indicates the recommended vaccinations for different risk groups including consideration of H1N1 vaccination status and recommendations regarding the administration of the monovalent H1N1 vaccine
• Table 2 and 3 in Annex 1 indicate the recommended dosage for children and adults for both the monovalent H1N1 vaccine and the trivalent seasonal influenza vaccine
• Annex 4 contains a table indicating the clinical risk groups for the 2010/11 campaign

Action: Clinicians should be aware of the target groups for the seasonal influenza immunisation programme this year and the recommendation to use a trivalent vaccine.