Flu jabs 'don't prevent deaths in the elderly'

They claim there is no firm evidence that the mass vaccination programme which takes place each winter prevents deaths.

The benefits of offering jabs to people over 65 have been "greatly exaggerated" and there are no figures to back up claims that lives are being saved, they insist.

A study published today in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal points out that few vaccine trials have actually included elderly people.

But the little evidence available suggests that the clinical benefits and the positive response to vaccination declines with advancing years, especially after 70.

More than 15million people in England receive the flu vaccine each year.

Priority is given to those aged 65 and over and around three-quarters of pensioners receive protection.

It is thought that 12,000 Britons died from flu in the winter of 2005/06, when outbreak rates were relatively low.

But Dr Lone Simonsen and colleagues from George Washington University, Washington DC, argue that recent studies in western countries have been unable to confirm a decline in flu deaths since 1980, even as vaccination coverage increased from 15 per cent to 65 per cent.

They say previous studies have claimed to show a 50 per cent reduction in the overall winter death rate as a result of vaccination campaigns, when only about five per cent of winter deaths are actually attributed to flu.

Trials have probably exaggerated the benefits because "healthy" elderly people tend to get more flu jabs than infirm people.

The evidence that exists is "currently insufficient to indicate the magnitude of the mortality benefit, if any, that elderly people derive from the vaccination programme", say the researchers.

Last year British vaccine expert Dr Tom Jefferson said there was little evidence to show the jab has any impact on the length of hopsital stays, time off work and death rates in healthy adults.

Dr Jefferson, co-writing a comment for The Lancet, said the latest research "confronts the ultimate taboo" that trials should be carried out specifically in elderly people to settle the issue.

He said: "That suggestion, which seems to fly in the face of current policies, is in our opinion the only ethical and scientific way to have definitive answers to the question of whether or not current influenza vaccines protect-elderly people."

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "The aim of our influenza policy is to protect those who are most at risk of serious illness or death should they develop influenza.

"UK policy is constantly under review to take into consideration all available evidence.

"This study acknowledges that whilst awaiting for an improved evidence base, vaccination with flu vaccine in this group should continue."

• One in six doctors has seen patients die because of Health Service rationing, according to a survey.

Two-thirds claim they have been told not to prescribe certain drugs by their NHS trust, even though the results could be fatal.

The survey of 1,000 GPs and hospital doctors also found more than half had been asked not to refer patients or to carry out certain procedures.

The poll by the magazines Doctor and Hospital Doctor shows a deterioration compared with a survey nine years ago. That found that one in 20 doctors knew patients who had died as a result of rationing.

Of those whose prescribing was rationed, 75 per cent said it was on cost grounds.

Examples included branded statins used to lower cholesterol and anti-obesity drugs.

Doctors have called for an urgent review of the "muddled" situation.

Doctor's Group Editor Charles Creswell said: "We need a rationing process which is transparent, consistent, evidence-based and fair."

A Health Department spokesman said NHS finance was not endless.

He added: "Hard decisions will always have to be made about which treatments to provide."