Children under five years old are to be vaccinated against swine flu from next month.

Being currently the age group with the highest rate of hospitalization, the Department of Health said that this second phase of the H1N1 vaccination programme is being extended to children aged between six months and five years old.

This move follows advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and will begin as soon as all the priority groups have received their vaccine around mid-December, when parents will receive a letter from their GP.

NI Health Minister McGimpsey said this virus was having a disproportionate impact on young people, particularly on children under four years of age who currently had "the highest rate of hospitalisation even without any underlying health conditions".

The Chief Medical Officer, Dr Michael McBride stated that last week, around 500 admissions to hospital were made in NI, of which 130 were from this age group.

However, while the British Medical Association in NI have welcomed the announcement, they regret that Mr McGimpsey did not consult with them on the issue.

According to the BMA's Deputy Chairman in NI Tom Black, there is no agreement with GPs to deliver this second phase.

They said that, in order to ensure vaccinations are delivered safely to patients, they believe this programme "should be planned, agreed and resourced through the four country process".

However, a spokesperson for the Department of Health said they understood negotiations had taken place at national level and they had hoped to engage with the BMA now.

The vaccination, which will be administered to about 100,000 children, may also be rolled out to older children in a further phase as well as to main carers for people whose welfare may be at risk if their carer falls ill.

At the moment, 7,000 pregnant women, more than 2,100 children in special schools with severe learning disability and over 20,000 frontline health workers have been vaccinated

"While the latest figures show that levels of flu-like illness are decreasing, we must not become complacent. It is impossible to predict how the swine flu virus will evolve, nor if there will be further waves next year," expressed McGimpsey, who considers vaccination the vest way to protect people.

Nowadays fifteen Northern Ireland people have dead due to swine flu, thirteen in the country, one person in England and another in Spain.

(CL)