The swine flu vaccine could soon become part of Bahrain's routine school immunisation programme, it has been revealed.

It will initially be voluntary, but could be made compulsory if the situation warrants it, said Health Ministry communicable diseases section head Dr Muna Al Mousawi.

The vaccine, of which 60,000 doses are set to arrive in the next three weeks, will first be administered to high-risk categories of the population.

A decision will then be taken on whether to make it routine under the national immunisation programme. 'It will not initially be compulsory for all school children to take it, but it would depend on the situation at that time,' Dr Al Mousawi said.

'When it does become part of routine immunisation, it will be voluntary unless the situation demands it be otherwise.

'If the global situation is so bad that the vaccine is considered necessary, it will be made compulsory and all children will have to take it.

Dr Al Mousawi said the swine flu situation was changing every day. 'We have changed protocol every few days because the situation is changing and this will keep happening,' she said.

The closure of schools and the decision not to test suspected patients for the H1N1, but instead to automatically prescribe the anti-viral Tamiflu were part of that 'dynamically-changing protocol', said Dr Al Mousawi.-TradeArabia News Service