Flu vaccinations in Israel back on

According to Israeli health officials the deaths of four men who had received a flu jab were not connected to the vaccination and the flu vaccination programme will now be resumed.

The Health Minister, 79 year old Yaacov Ben-Yizri, made the announcement before having the vaccination himself on live television in order to demonstrate its safety.

The ministry had ordered the suspension of all inoculations when it was discovered that three of the four men who died were vaccinated at the same medical centre and injected from the same vaccine pool.

Experts have now ruled out any connection to the vaccine and say all four men died from cardiac arrest.

Health officials had consulted with experts from the makers of the vaccine, French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi-Aventis who found no evidence linking the vaccine to the deaths.

Hospital officials had said earlier that all the men who died were aged 52 to 76 and suffered from serious conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

Experts worldwide advise all those over 65 or with severe heart conditions to be vaccinated as they are at high risk from complications from influenza, which kills hundreds of thousands of people each year.

More than 140,000 people had already been vaccinated for the flu virus in Israel this year.

The vaccine contains an inactivated virus, but the risk of death is very small.

A meeting of public health bodies organised by French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand to look into the brief suspension, has confirmed that nothing indicates the deaths were linked to the vaccine and that no situation similar to that in Israel has been reported in France or elsewhere.