Health Information and Self Care Advice for Scotland

Scottish Swine Flu Vaccination Helpline

If you have questions about the H1N1 vaccination, please contact:

08000 28 28 16

Swine Flu vaccinations

Swine flu is different from ordinary flu because it’s a new flu virus that appears in humans and spreads very quickly from person-to-person worldwide.

Because Swine flu is a new virus, no one has immunity to it and everyone could be at risk of catching it. This includes healthy adults as well as older people, young children and those with existing medical conditions. Therefore, the Government has committed to the provision of a national swine flu immunisation programme for the people of Scotland.  

Translated versions of the national swine flu vaccinations leaflet.

Translated version of the national swine flu vaccinations leaflet for parents.

Vaccines have now been developed to protect against catching the swine flu virus. The vaccines being used in Scotland have been licensed by the European Medicines Agency and have been shown to be safe and effective in clinical trials.

Vaccines will be offered first to people who are most likely to become seriously ill if they catch swine flu. If you are in one of these groups, you will be invited, over the next couple of months, to go to an immunisation clinic or to make an appointment at your doctor’s surgery. These people are:

• Adults and children over six months of age who have a long-term health condition, including: chronic lung disease, chronic heart disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic liver disease, chronic neurological diseases, diabetes mellitus, immunosuppression caused by disease or treatment for a disease. For example, this may include people who do not have a spleen, and people who are on immunosuppressant treatment or are taking high doses of systemic steroids.
• Pregnant women at any stage of pregnancy.
• People who live in the same house as someone whose immune system is compromised by disease or treatment.
• Frontline health and social care workers. 

Most people will require a single dose of the vaccination. Children under the age of ten and immunocompromised individuals will require two doses.

The H1N1 vaccination programme will run in tandem with the existing seasonal flu programme. It is important that people who are entitled to receive both vaccinations do so. The H1N1 vaccination will not give protection against seasonal flu or vice versa.

The first days of the vaccination programme will focus on hospitals, immunising frontline staff and long-term patients who fall into the at-risk groups and might otherwise miss their vaccination.

The vaccination programme will then move into the community and GPs will invite eligible patients to come forward to receive the jab. Patients should wait until their GP contacts them.

Not everyone in the country will get their vaccine at exactly the same time, so don’t worry if you don’t hear from your GP surgery straight away. However, if after a few weeks you think you should have received an invitation to have the vaccine and you have not, get in touch with your GP surgery.

• Find out about swine flu vaccinations in our Q&A section.
• Read more swine flu vaccinations and pregnancy in our Q&A section.
• More in depth Q&A section on swine flu vaccinations.
• Read more about seasonal flu.
• The Scottish Government have more information on the priority groups for H1N1 vaccine.

The document(s) displayed on this page are Portable Document Format (PDF).  You can download PDF documents using Adobe Reader – available free of charge.

If your screen reader software (for example an audio-enabled web browser) is not compatible with Adobe Reader, Adobe provide a free online tool to convert the content of PDF files to text – so they can be understood by most screen reader applications.

If you would like a copy of any of the documents referred to on these pages in an alternative language or format, such as audio tape, large print or Braille, please contact the NHS Helpline on 0800 22 44 88.  Textphone users dial 18001 0800 22 44 88.