An estimated 1 million health care workers treating flu patients will be given top priority for H1N1 swine flu vaccinations when the medicine becomes available around late October, the health ministry said.
Around 10 million pregnant women and people with underlying conditions will be next in line, ahead of 6 million preschoolers and around 2 million parents of babies under the age of 1, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Friday.
Health minister Yoichi Masuzoe also hinted the ministry will try to reduce vaccination costs for the poor.
The ministry also said in its vaccination plan that around 14 million elementary, junior high and high school students, as well as 21 million people aged 65 or older, should be inoculated earlier because H1N1 has been spreading rapidly among teens, and even elderly people without chronic diseases may develop severe symptoms if they contract it.
A national vaccination policy will be finalized later this month after public consultations. The ministry anticipates that domestically produced H1N1 vaccines for around 18 million people will be available by next March, and that imported vaccines will be available for use from late December.
The ministry is preparing to import vaccines for the H1N1 strain of influenza to help cover shortfalls in domestic production. Masuzoe has expressed hope Japan will secure about 60 million doses of vaccines. People with chronic diseases are believed to be at higher risk of dying if infected with H1N1.
The ministry said people with asthma, heart, kidney, liver and blood diseases, as well as HIV and cancer, will be prioritized.
Flu cases surge
The number of influenza patients reported by about 5,000 designated medical institutions across the country during the week ended Aug. 30 stood at 12,007, or 2.52 per facility, up from 11,636, or 2.47 per facility the previous week, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said Friday.
Most of the flu patients in the reporting week are believed to be infected with the H1N1 virus, officials said as the institute released a preliminary report.
The ratio of patients per facility topped 1 for the first time in mid-August, marking the beginning of a domestic epidemic expected to peak around late September to early October.
Okinawa overwhelmingly led a list of prefectures hit hardest by influenza, with 36.00 patients per facility in the reporting week, although the figure was sharply down from 46.31 the preceding week.
An official of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said health authorities are not yet sure whether infections in Okinawa have peaked and will monitor data next week to assess the situation.
Okinawa was followed by Oita Prefecture, which stood at 3.72, Osaka and Fukuoka prefectures at 3.08 and Tokyo at 3.01.
In Hokkaido, where schools resumed classes after summer vacation earlier than other areas, the patient per facility ratio rose sharply from 0.82 in the previous week to 2.17.
Meanwhile, World Health Organization medical officer Nahoko Shindo told a symposium on the H1N1 virus at the University of Tokyo on Friday that local authorities’ decision in May to close schools in western Japan to contain the virus drew global attention as an effective way of dealing with the pandemic.
She warned that the delay in treatment with antiviral agents could result in deaths from such symptoms as influenza virus pneumonia and encephalopathy, and that a sharp increase in patients expected during the upcoming peak would burden medical workers at intensive-care units.
The health ministry has estimated about 25 million people, some 20 percent of the population, are expected to catch H1N1 and that the epidemic will peak around late September to early October.
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