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Vaccination Prioritized For The Flu

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The Associated Press

Published: October 23, 2007

WASHINGTON - Pregnant women, babies and toddlers would join doctors, emergency workers and soldiers at the head of the line for scarce vaccine if a super strain of flu triggers the next pandemic, says a draft government plan to be released today.

Once more vaccine is brewed, older children along with workers who keep the electricity, water and phones running could be next to roll up their sleeves.

At the end of the line: The elderly and healthy younger adults.

It's a priority list quite different from the usual winter pleas for older Americans to get vaccinated against regular flu, and it reflects growing agreement that curbing a supervirus would require protecting workers who care for the sick and maintain crucial services - plus targeting the people most likely to spread flu, not just die from it.

'Children are not only highly susceptible to influenza, children are also very good at spreading it,' said William Raub, emergency planning chief at the Department of Health and Human Services. 'Protecting them also protects those in the population.'

The list will prove no surprise to state and local health authorities struggling to plan how they would ration vaccine for a panicked population. The Bush administration has long signaled its key priority groups.

The new draft plan puts a rationale for step-by-step vaccination to paper, opening it to formal debate before the list is finalized - not as set-in-stone rules, but as guidelines for states.

'Some local discretion is going to be imperative here,' Raub said.

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