An emergency consignment of 10,000 units of flu vaccine arrived here from The Netherlands Sunday night and was approved by the Health Ministry. It is being distributed to pharmacies all over the country Monday.
Israel is in the grip of an Asian flu epidemic, a particularly virulent strain of Taiwan and Singapore flu which claimed 89 lives in the last two weeks of November and has put thousands on the sick list.
The local supply of vaccine has run out. The imported ampules are expected to sell out in a few hours. The Health Ministry wants to restrict them to the high-risk groups — young children and elderly persons suffering from chronic ailments. The Dutch-made vaccine sells for 21 Shekels ($14) a dose, double the cost of a French-made vaccine against the normal strain of flu. New stocks of the latter are due here next week.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
