Give flu vaccine to nurses, chronic sick first: EU experts

Pregnant women, health workers and people with underlying health problems should receive swine flu vaccines ahead of the rest of the population, EU experts recommended Tuesday.

There was no call for children to be prioritised.

"All persons from six months old with underlying chronic conditions (e.g. chronic respiratory diseases; chronic cardiovascular diseases and persons with congenital or acquired immunodeficiency)," should be vaccinated first, the expert group said in a written statement.

Those with the most severe symptoms should be at the head of the queue, they added.

Pregnant women and "health care workers" were the other two categories prioritised by the European Union Health Security Committee and the Early Warning and Response authorities.

The experts, who thus backed proposals from the European Commission, stressed that "it is the responsibility and mandate of each (EU) member state to develop a vaccination strategy for Influenza A H1N1".