Publicly Funded Influenza Vaccine Available on October 1

Hsinchu Affiliated Hospital of University of Traditional Chinese Medicine provides one-stop service to make appointment for injection.

Publicly funded influenza vaccines will be administered on October 1. To provide convenient services, the Affiliated Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine University Hsinchu will offer morning and afternoon clinics in the Department of Family Medicine Monday through Friday during publicly funded influenza vaccination.

Director of Infectious Diseases Department Zhang Qiyin noted that the most serious complications of influenza can be pneumonia and respiratory failure, and even complications of heart disease, cardiovascular disease, brain or subsequent fungal infection, which are difficult to treat. The key to preventing severe influenza is to encourage eligible individuals to receive public funding for vaccination.

Especially, due to weather changes in autumn and winter, if you need to take care of the elderly or children, it is recommended to get vaccinated at your own expense to protect yourself, the elderly and the children.

Hu Songlin, director of the Department of Family Medicine, noted that the priority targets in the first phase include:

• Medical and health and epidemic prevention workers
• Elderly people over 65 years old
• Caregivers and nursing home workers
• Long-term care (services) and other institutions
• Senior citizens aged and before entering primary school
• Pregnant women
• High-risk chronic patients with underlying diseases
• Patients with BMI ≧30
• Patients with rare diseases and severe injuries
• Primary school, high school (vocational)/five-year special education students in grades one to three
• Parents of infants under six months of age
• Kindergarten childcare staff
• Professional and home-based childcare staff (nannies) in day care institutions
• Poultry industry and animal epidemiology Prevention – related workers

Stage II includes adults aged 50 to 64 who do not have high-risk chronic diseases. If people want to go for vaccination, they must bring their health insurance card and relevant supporting documents (such as Child Health Handbook, Maternal Health Handbook, etc.).