Government wants emergency stock of flu vaccines
The government has proposed the creation of an emergency stock of vaccines to combat influenza epidemics.
Consultation on the project will begin next summer and it is hoped that more than a million doses of the vaccine will be stored in reserves.
Thomas Zeltner, director of the federal health office, said the project had been conceived well before this autumn’s epidemic struck Switzerland.
But he was quick to reassure that the present situation is by no means critical and that doctors still have plenty of vaccines.
The reserves are intended to be used to respond to the new and increasingly powerful strains of flu that strike Switzerland every 10 to 15 years.
In the event of a serious epidemic, the elderly and the sick are normally the first to be vaccinated, followed by doctors and nurses and public officials such as members of the government.
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