Babies under six months won’t get swine flu vaccine

By Catherine Shanahan © Examiner Publications (Cork) Limited
The first 30,000 batches of the swine flu vaccine will arrive here next week. The Health Service Executive (HSE) said the decision not to vaccinate infants under six months was because they "still had a natural immunity". However a baby’s natural immunity is not guaranteed beyond two/three months unless the mother is breastfeeding. The HSE has already confirmed babies are among those who have caught swine flu. The Department of Health has confirmed that to secure early supplies of the vaccine, the Government granted indemnity to the drug companies – Baxter Healthcare and GlaxoSmithKline – as part of an advance purchase agreement. It said waiving liability for side effects – which the British and American governments have also done – did not absolve the vaccine companies from compliance with the normal quality assurance standards in the production of the vaccine. The department said the vaccine will be produced "using methods that have been tried and tested in the yearly process of seasonal flu vaccine production which is also produced over a short time frame" and that these vaccines "have had a very good safety profile".
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