PUTRAJAYA: The health ministry is considering providing free vaccinations against influenza to those aged 65 and above from 2025, says the minister, Dzulkefly Ahmad.
Dzulkefly said this would fall under the ministry’s National Immunisation Programme (NIP) though its implementation depended on the finance ministry’s green light.
“The elderly are exposed to (higher) risks. I hope that (the free vaccinations) will be included in the 2025 federal budget or the following year’s, so we can include it in the NIP.
“We will request it for the vulnerable groups’ benefit and strive to obtain that allocation,” he said at a press conference after officiating the National Immunisation Day celebration here today.
Dzulkefly also said the ministry will provide free tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis combination vaccines for pregnant mothers from the end of this year.
He said this is aimed at protecting newborns from pertussis, also known as whooping cough.
Dr Zulkifli Ismail, the chairman of the Immunise4life programme’s technical committee, said the vaccine can be administered to pregnant women between 27 and 32 weeks of gestation.
He said the vaccine will be administered as a single dose for each pregnancy, limited to once a year in the event a woman is pregnant twice within a year. - FMT
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