Cuba Flu Vaccine Campaign Begins Monday

HAVANA TIMES, Nov 19 — A flu vaccination campaign begins on Monday in Cuba to reach the most vulnerable sectors, totaling a little over 5% of the total population of 11.2 million.

Persons 85 or older, asthmatics and diabetics between the ages of 15 and 24, women over three months pregnant, people in rest homes, with physical handicaps, hospitalized psychiatric patients, and people with heart, kidney, liver, blood disorders, fibrosis, etc. will receive the vaccine.

Others to be vaccinated include health personal that work with seriously ill patients, those working with patients of respiratory diseases and in laboratories.  Likewise workers at livestock farms.

Maria Josefa Llanes Cordero, national coordinator of the Tuberculosis Control and Serious Respiratory Infection programs of the Ministry of Public Health, told Granma daily that the vaccine is a one dose shot that protects against three respiratory viruses:  H1N1, H3N2, and Type B Flu.