A major drive to protect families from swine flu will be launched in Bahrain today (November 7).

The national vaccination campaign, under the theme 'Your commitment to H1N1 vaccine protects your family', will be inaugurated at 10.30am at the Hamad Kanoo Health Centre in Riffa under the patronage of Health Minister Dr Faisal Al Hamer.

He will be the first person to be vaccinated in Bahrain, followed by ministers, Shura Council members, MPs and senior officials.

The vaccines will be administered free starting today and will initially be given at the Hamad Kanoo Health Centre before gradually becoming available at other health centres.

Health Ministry spokesman Adel Ali Abdulla said the ministry has taken all preventive measures, appointed representatives to oversee the vaccination and signed agreements with the world's best drug manufacturing countries to provide it with enough vaccines to cover the majority of the population.

Around three million people worldwide have been vaccinated without developing serious side-effects, he said, calling on the public to get vaccinated to protect their families.

Earlier, experts told our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News that more than 860,000 people, nearly 90 per cent of the population, will catch swine flu or the common flu by the end of next year, if people refuse vaccinations.

The number of swine flu deaths has grown by more than 370 over a week to pass 6,000, as the pandemic spread into more than 199 countries and territories, according to data released by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Meanwhile, the WHO yesterday called for closer monitoring of farm workers and animals for influenza A viruses, following recent cases in a wider range of creatures than pigs.-TradeArabia News Service