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R/£ Dutch queue for H1N1 jabs in blanket plan
November 24, 2009 Edition 4
AMSTERDAM: The Netherlands has begun vaccinating up to 830 000 children against swine flu in one of the country's largest vaccination programmes.
Children between six months and four years old have received invitations to be vaccinated against the H1N1 virus.
The Netherlands has ordered enough vaccine to inoculate the entire country of 16 million people.
Pregnant women, the elderly and people with autoimmune diseases were vaccinated first.
A major centre in Amsterdam was expecting 64 000 children yesterday, the first of a three-day campaign.
Children and parents arrived in a constant stream of prams and bikes, and were greeted with clowns singing songs about how shots don't hurt - although an occasional wail could still be heard.
Britain's authority on etiquette, Debrett's, has advised that it is more hygienic to exchange kisses on the cheek than to shake hands - so the swine flu pandemic should not make people afraid of kissing under the mistletoe this holiday season.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned today of a possible resurgence of bird flu amid new cases of the disease in poultry in Egypt, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
It said it was closely monitoring the risk of the H5N1 virus combining with the H1N1 swine-flu virus to produce a new and deadlier strain.
WHO noted that the H1N1 virus, which had killed more than 6 000 people worldwide since April, was a new strain resulting from a combination of the avian, swine and human strains of flu in pigs in Mexico.
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