swine flu situation for under 5s worrying me BUT NO vaccine available for them.

[waitingwaiting]

Hi
I've got a one year old and a 3 year old. 3 year old going back to Nursery School tomorrow. I must admit that I am very worried about the swine flu situation for the under 5s.

According to the Daily Mirror (30th Jan)the Swine flu is at epidemic levels for children aged 1-5 and paedriatric hospitals are close to 'not coping' - and the Telegraph (31 dec) also reports the same - Critically ill include 42 children under 5 and flu levels have doubled with that age group.

Okay, I guess parents have very differing views on this but I must say that I am rather concerned...

I've tried absolutely loads of avenues to see if I can get the vaccine for my under 3 year old with No success what so ever.

Boots/supermarkets etc wont give it, they will however dispense it under prescription for GP to adminster But my GP wont do a prescription. Bupa wont do it. In fact everywhere I try wont.

All I want to do is try to protect my family but just dont know how. The flu jabs have traditionally been offered for the elderly as thats the age the flu has affected before, however now we have a different strain of flu which does target the young however no one seems to want to protect the young and offer the vaccine.

It was offered to pregnant women last year and in turn protected the unborn baby, which I had, however now my baby is one years old, its as if its no longer important as no one will be prepared to protect her from the flu, despite the fact that she could be very poorly if she had it. Is it worth risking even one childs life? no. I dont think so.

Anyway, I'm rambling on a bit here, point is I want to protect my children and get them vaccinated but just cant. Anyone else in the same situation? and how do you feel about it? Why is it that all adults can easily get protected, yet children cant?

Many thanks

Nicola

I know you're angry but I'd hardly call the Portland Hospital the medical establishment.

somehow I dont think the medical establishment was meant to be refering to the portland hospital... probably meant those people who make the NHS medical decisions.....

manicmummy - I think the issue is - if you have swine flu and your chickens got bird flu then that could equal a new flu strain. Which might make you quite famous, but I'm not sure you'd want it!

hilly- that doesnt make sense. The swine flu, like any other influenza a atrain will change with time.

Hi guys

I understand you're worried. However, as Patsy99 says, the situation is currently no worse than any usual winter.

It's a sad fact that every sort of flu - H1N1 or otherwise - claims lives each winter. Mostly, the victims have an underlying condition.

The media are irresponsible bastards for scaremongering the way they have been doing. Fraankly, they have caused mass panic, especially amongst carers and parents. No wonder everyone's so upset and stressed. They have a duty to report responsibly...but of course that doesn't sell papers.

I hope those of you who want it manage to get the vaccine locally or privately. In the meantime, impress upon your kids (if they're old enough) that clean hands are the best defence and teach them to 'catch it, kill it, bin it'.

OhYouBadBadKitten if I wanted fame, would go on x factor and be shamed!lol, thanks for the link, dp works across from one medicentre, so am going to take the kids on a day trip to ldn I think, no prices on there site, but if I had to pay £220 for my childs health, It would be worth it (although It does seem unfair, £220/12.99!)

We are getting ours at our local travel clinic. Look up your local one on google, I think most are offering it and its only 15 pounds a vaccine.

The situation is a great deal worse than other recent winters, partly due to the lack of central planning following the damp sqib pandemic last year. H1N1 patients are being cared for theatre recovery areas and children travelling across the country to find the nearest intensive care bed. Operations are being cancelled to make space. I have made 63 phone calls over the last few weeks to try to get a vaccine for DS2. No luck and I'm really worried about him going to Nursery but DH and I are both frontline healthcare workers.

ProfessorLayton - they arent' necessary the seasonal and swine flu combined. I paid to have one done at Lloyds Pharmacy last week and the consent form I signed told me that it wouldn't protect me from swine flu and the pharmacist who administered it confirmed that this is the case.

As am I. Winter pressures which are compounded by people turning up at A&E for minor reasons (not swine flu-related) and clogging it up. Winter vomiting closing wards. Flu admissions. These are what exacerbate winter pressures.

To help this, always try minor injuries/walk-in centres/your own GP/NHS Direct first. A&E depts are not nice places to be. Yuk.

That's odd -- the NHS information states categorically "This year's flu jab (2010-2011): This winter, the H1N1 strain of the flu virus is one of three strains of flu that the seasonal flu jab protects against. H1N1 is the same strain of flu behind last year's swine flu pandemic. The other two strains of flu this year's jab protects against are H3N2 and B." and I had the impression that the WHO centrally decides what three strains of flu each year's seasonal jab protects against, so that there's only one kind of seasonal jab available each year. So what were Lloyds injecting you with?

luckbealady, the official figures seem to show that significantly more (as in several times more) critical care beds are occupied by people with flu-like illnesses this year than in a usual winter. Is that not the case?

The Boots website claims their seasonal flu jab won't protect against swine flu, but when I phoned they said it did....ummm

I know this wont help most of you, but for anyone in Aberdeenshire, a pharmacy is vaccinating children - Charles Michie on Union Street - we had our two boys there today.

what a mess!

a total mess!

Sorry, I haven't read the total thread but I'm really suprised at this. My GP was other way around - all children under 5, regardless of health, were called for this. It was about Feb last year, and there was a bit of an uproar in ds1 class (reception at that time) because some children were having it (ds1 birthday in May) and others (like his best friend) weren't because they had already turned 5.

I'm really quite shocked because there seems to have been a complete turnaround.

(Btw, I had the flu jab last October and was told it wpould give protection against swine flu. Nothing was mentioned about strains though)

lets hope someone is listening and does something to help....

www.thisissomerset.co.uk/news/Pressure-mounts-children-flu-vaccination/article-3066076-detail/article.html

Patsy99 - the advice re pregnant women has now changed and the advice is that irrespective of whether they were vaccinated last year or not, pregnant women should have the trivalent 'flu vaccine this year ie even if they did have H1N1/swine flu vaccine last year. This is a change to the initial advice and was changed in the week before Christmas. Hope that's helpful if it affects anyone who has been given the 'old' advice prior to the updated guidance.

Why are peopel so worried? It's just flu. People who are immune-compromised and pregnant womes should be worries, but no one else. Keeping healthy children off school because of it is seriously over reacting.

Seeker, the swine strain is not flu-as-normal. It has been shown to cause proportionally more fatalities and severe morbidity in younger age groups than most other strains of seasonal flu. I honestly don't understand why people keep on denying that the H1N1 strain is different. It really does seem to be.

I had my second child 2 weeks ago. I had the combined jab 4 days before that happened, so DS2 won't have got very much placental immunity. I'm now trying to find a way of getting DS1 vaccinated (he is nearly 3) and of course DH can get his in a chemist. It's not just to avoid DS1 getting ill, but to protect the baby, who can't be vaccinated. I'm really quite concerned, and I don't tend to get swept up in panics.

I have just had my flu jab as im asthmatic, but i want to get my 3 boys done also - aged 5,2 and 1. I feel if there is any risk at all to my children and this jab can take the risk away, its crazy not to have them done. I will keep trying to find somewhere private, we are in shropshire/cheshire borders if anyone knows of where we can go???

Wow.
After the first couple of posts I thought 'Over reacting!'
Now perhaps I'm severely underreacting, DD1 is asthmatic, will see about taking her for a jab.

Sorry to all of you who are having a stressful time. Here's a success story that confounds the stereotypes about US healthcare.

We are visiting family in America at the moment. Having heard about the rise in flu cases in the UK, and found out from my GP's surgery in England that the situation there is the dog's breakfast that many of you have described, I decided to find out what could be done over here.

After a couple of phonecalls, my DCs (3 years and 9 months) and I walked into an office of Public Health today, and within an hour we had all been given the flu vaccination. For free!! Had we come in on a Monday we would not have had to wait as they have a special flu clinic. Very few questions asked (as it happens my kids are US citizens through their dad, but no-one asked for proof of citizenship, residence etc.)

America seems to have a massively better setup for dealing with seasonal flu. The local hospital holds big drop in clinics every autumn. It's quite convivial. And costs nothing, even if you don't have health insurance. Now why can't the NHS do the same??

telegraph report on the vaccine situation.

As I said earlier, what a mess. It is a complete failure of the system. The way it is supposed to work is that 'At risk' people are vaccinated October/November - not in the middle of an emerging epidemic and there should be enough vaccine to cover all at risk groups.