TOKYO, Oct. 17, 2009 (Kyodo News International) -- Sixteen of Japan's 47 prefectures cannot start vaccinating healthcare workers against the H1N1 strain of influenza on Monday as set out in the inoculation schedule made by the national government, according to a Kyodo News survey released Saturday.
Officials of the 16 prefectural governments cited such factors as delays in procedures to select hospitals that would implement vaccine injections as well as difficulties they face in deciding how to distribute the vaccines among the hospitals.
These problems may hamper the implementation of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's overall schedule for carrying out vaccinations to combat H1N1 in accordance with the priority ranking it has set up -- healthcare workers beginning Monday, pregnant women and people with underlying conditions in November, young children aged between 1 and 8 in December, and parents of babies under the age of 1 early next year.
In the survey conducted Friday, Kyodo News asked each of the 47 prefectures whether they can start giving the shots on Monday to doctors and other medical professionals who treat people infected with H1N1.
The 16 municipalities that responded negatively are Hokkaido, Fukushima, Tokyo, Gunma, Kanagawa, Saitama, Aichi, Toyama, Shiga, Nara, Kochi, Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto and Miyazaki.
But most of the 16 said they will start giving the injections sometime during the week beginning Monday, with Toyama planning to start Thursday, and Hokkaido and Nara on Friday. Tokyo said it will start ''in the week beginning Oct. 26.''
Among the 30 prefectural governments that said they will start giving the shots on Monday, Shimane suggested a possible delay in hospitals located in remote islands and other distant places.
Miyagi said it will complete the delivery of vaccines to selected hospitals so they can start administering them from Monday, but whether the vaccinations will actually start that day will ''hinge on conditions at the hospitals.''
Hiroshima, which did not say either yes or no to the question, said it is trying to complete the arrangements so it can start administering the vaccines in the week beginning Monday.
