LONDON, Jul 12, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Britain plans to vaccinate its entire
population against the H1N1 virus, with as many as 20 million people being
inoculated this year, health officials said.
Details of the plan emerged Saturday after health officials in Essex reported
the virus had killed a middle-age man -- the first healthy British patient to
die from the disease.
The other 14 who have died from the virus in Britain this year had underlying
health problems, The Times of London reported Sunday.
A new vaccine expected to arrive in Britain within weeks likely would be given
to children, front-line health workers, people with underlying illnesses and the
elderly before being given to the rest of Britain's population, The Sunday
Telegraph reported.
"If this virus does (mutate), it can get a lot more nasty, and the idea is to
give people immunity. But the sheer logistics of dealing with 60 million people
can't be underestimated," Peter Holden, a spokesman for the British Medical
Association said, referring to the total population in the United Kingdom.
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