THE biggest ever flu vaccination programme in Wales will get under way in a matter of weeks, with the aim of minimising the potential impact of it co-circulating with coronavirus next winter.

The age over which people qualify for a free flu jab on the NHS is being lowered from 65 to 50 this year, to try to encourage as many people as possible to get themselves protected.

But a key aim will be to try to raise the uptake among people in 'at risk' groups, which include those with chronic respiratory disease such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic heart. kidney or liver disease, and diabetes.

Uptake in 'at risk' groups is an ongoing concern across the UK, with the proportion of those in them who are getting protected against flu falling.

In 2019, just 44.4 per cent of under-65s in 'at risk' groups in Wales had a flu jab, down from 51.4 per cent five years earlier.

Uptake in all 22 council areas in Wales was below the target - and though the longer term target, as recommended by the World Health Organisation, is that 75 per cent of those in 'at risk' groups be vaccinated, Wales last year adopted an interim target of 55 per cent.

This was because, as Chief Medical Officer Dr Frank Atherton stated in a Welsh Government Welsh Health Circular in April 2019, "current uptake is some way below this (75 per cent) aspiration".

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The picture in Gwent mirrors that across the rest of Wales, with uptake among 'at risk' under-65s falling over several years.

Monmouthshire had the best uptake in Wales among this group in 2019, at 53.5 per cent and has been at or near the top of the uptake table over several years. But nonetheless, 'at risk' uptake in the county has fallen from 60.3 per cent in 2014.

And there are wide discrepancies in the rate of decline during 2014-19, from just 0.2 per cent in Anglesey to 12 per cent in Merthyr Tydfil.

Newport has the third biggest decline in 'at risk' uptake during this period, at 11.7 per cent, though in 2019 the 45.9 per cent uptake rate in the city was the six highest in Wales.

All five council areas in Gwent were in the top 10 in Wales in 2019 for uptake among those in 'at risk' groups. But only Monmouthshire got near the interim 55 per cent target rate.

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has reported that by the end of March this year, uptake of flu vaccine among 'at risk' groups in its catchment area was 46.5 per cent, compared to 50.8 per cent in March 2018 and 55 per cent in 2014.

Complacency among the public may account in part for the decline in uptake, allied to a view that the vaccine - which changes every year to take account of the changing nature of flu - is not effective enough.

"Some of these concerns aren’t wrong," said Professor Heidi Larson director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

“Some years it really isn’t that effective against all strains.

“But I would certainly urge people to take it anyway, as you wouldn’t want the strains that it does protect against.”

On a brighter note however, uptake among people aged 65 and over in Gwent, to March 31 this year, was 70,8 per cent, below the 75 per cent target but up on recent years.

And flu vaccine uptake among frontline healthcare staff in the area - 61.8 per cent at March 31 against a 60 per cent target - has improved considerably since 2017.