HSE urging people working with poultry or pigs to get the flu vaccine

Vivienne Clarke

The HSE is urging people in regular close contact with poultry, waterfowl or pigs to avail of the free flu vaccine to protect them because of the occupational risk if exposed to bird flu.

Dr Eamonn O’Moore, director of national health protection with the HSE, told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that it was important to recognise that there was a risk in those occupations.

“So the concern is that when you have bird flu, which is an entirely and normally avian problem, there can be a degree of risk of mixing if you have a person with Influenza A, human type, and then exposed to bird flu, there is a theoretical risk of mixing, which is why we want to ensure that to avoid that we protect occupationally exposed people.”

Dr O’Moore was speaking about the HSE’s current campaign offering the flu vaccine to people for whom the flu would be more than “a self-limiting unpleasant illness” such as those with weakened immune systems, people who are older and people who've got other conditions.

“The key message that we want to put out this morning for everyone who may be concerned or worried about this, is that the best intervention is vaccination and the HSE provides vaccination free to people who are eligible. And that's people who were aged 60 or older, children aged two to 17 years, those with underlying medical conditions, pregnant women and also health care workers and people caring for others who may themselves have other problems.

“We know that vaccination is the best protection against severe disease, complications of flu infection, and of course worse. So this is why it's so important. And while we will know more about the vaccine effectiveness in time, we have a good level of confidence that this is a very effective protection against complications of the flu.”

Dr O’Moore said that this winter so far there had been “a good take up” among key demographics.

“We have data up to a few weeks ago, which shows that over half of people living in care settings, so what we call fair deal residents have been vaccinated so far. And we have over 40 percent of the population aged 60 and over have been vaccinated so far.

"However, that's still a bit away from where we'd all want to be.”

However, Dr o’Moore acknowledged that only 20 per cent of healthcare workers had been vaccinated, but that the data was from a few weeks ago.

“We've been making a significant drive to increase that number. And we're encouraging all of our colleagues to have the vaccines available in clinics and in hospitals. It's also available from GPs and pharmacies.”