Few Emiratis ask for flu jab, health centre personnel reveal

Dubai: Ahmad Thani, who is going on Haj for the first time, was one of the few Emiratis at Al Safa primary health care centre to ask for an H1N1 vaccination.

"I am sure it is safe," he said, speaking about the jab, which most UAE pilgrims are fearful about, saying that General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, set an example by being the first in the country to take the vaccine.

The waiting room was packed, a day after it was announced that certain centres have been designated for the vaccination. Nurses were working on double shifts to handle the rush of people.

But they said many Emiratis did not want the new flu jab, though the vaccination has been made mandatory by the Saudi government for pilgrims.

"No swine flu," said an Emirati mother, telling a nurse not to give her son vaccination for H1N1. Her adolescent son was given the meningitis C and the regular flu vaccines.

Those who do not want the new flu vaccine have been asked to sign their names in a register and are then given the certificate booklet that the pilgrims have to carry.

Mohammad Al Gargash said he will not take the vaccination, though the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Ministry of Health have said it is perfectly safe and has no side-effects. "I don't know what is the content of the medicine," he said.

Rumours have spread that the flu vaccine has not been fully tested. "There is not enough information on TV," said Al Gargash.

In spite of the current H1N1 scare, a total of 6,228 UAE residents will go on a pilgrimage out of which 5,228 are Emiratis.

The number of UAE pilgrims travelling to the holy land is similar if not more than last year's numbers, source from the UAE Haj delegation said. The same source said the H1N1 scare failed to stop pilgrims from performing their religious duties.

With additional inputs from Abdullah Rasheed, Abu Dhabi Editor