Britain will start a vaccination programme against H1N1 swine flu next week, the country’s chief medical officer said on Thursday.

“The programme will be rolling from next week,” Liam Donaldson told reporters.

A total of 415,000 doses of GlaxoSmithKline’s Pandemrix shot will be delivered from Oct. 21 to immunise high-risk patients in hospitals and front-line healthcare workers.

From the week beginning Oct. 26, 4.4 million doses of the same vaccine will be delivered to general practitioners for patients in priority groups, officials added.

The government has previously said the first to be immunised would be about 5 million people aged over six months in current seasonal flu risk groups, all pregnant women, contacts of people with compromised immune systems, and about 2 million health and social care workers.

Britain has bought supplies of swine flu vaccine from both Glaxo and Baxter.

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* Hospital vaccination from Oct 21, in community from Oct 26

* Patients to get Glaxo’s H1N1 vaccine Pandemrix

LONDON (Reuters)