Latest figures on the number of flu deaths will be published on Thursday as the mother of a three-year-old victim urged the government to further review its vaccination policy.

Pharmacy giant Boots has also revealed its stores have “very limited” stocks of the winter flu jab and said there was currently no hope of replenishing its supplies.

The number of flu deaths this winter stands at 50 - with 45 due to swine flu - but the Health Protection Agency is to release updated statistics later.

The Department of Health will also publish figures on the number of people suffering from flu.

Gemma Ameen and her husband, Zana, switched off life support to their daughter, Lana, just two days after she apparently caught a cold on Christmas Eve.

The couple, a nurse and a doctor, initially took their daughter to hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester, where she was diagnosed with an infection and sent home.

Later the same day she was taken back to Stepping Hill Hospital after she suffered multiple fits.

Mr and Mrs Ameen, from Quinton, Birmingham, claimed she then had to be revived three times over a three-hour period as they said a junior doctor refused to call a specialist consultant.

Lana was eventually transferred to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool but died on Boxing Day.

Mrs Ameen issued a photograph of her daughter in intensive care in a bid to reverse government policy on who is eligible for the seasonal flu vaccine which combats the H1N1 virus.

The Department of Health insisted independent expert advice was “absolutely clear” that children who do not have risk factors should not be vaccinated.

The advice had been reviewed recently and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) did not change its recommendation, it added.

Mrs Ameen, 28, responded: “It’s heartless really. It definitely needs looking at again with another review.

“Rather than just taking facts and figures, they need to start thinking about people’s lives.

“It’s not about whether they thought Lana should have been eligible. Obviously she was because she died from it.

“I think all children should be vaccinated and anyone else who is prepared to pay for it.”

 

Topics