Despite the fact that the flu outbreak in 2010 claimed over 600 lives, the health department has surprisingly axed the flu awareness campaign which essentially serves as a reminder to the patients to get their jabs!

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has decided against running the flu jabs campaign this year --- marking a shift from the precedence in the last few years, when the ministers have been spending nearly £1.5million on TV commercials that remind the people to go in for the flu vaccinations.

The decision implies that while Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland will start their TV-advertisements campaign for flu jabs from October, England will be the only UK country to give the campaign a miss.

The decision to ditch the campaign appears to be divisive one, particularly in the wake of the fact that the toll of the flu outbreak last winter touched almost 602; and many British hospitals reportedly reached a breaking point due to the inundation of sufferers.

The officials at the Health Protection Agency (HPA) had said that time round that it was indeed a ‘very concerning’ situation that the vaccine is administered to very few high-risk patients.

As such, stressing that the purpose of the flu jabs campaign is “to inform and encourage flu vaccination,” Dr George Kassianos - from the Royal College of GPs - said: “Without it, the job may not be well done, and GPs should not be blamed for that”!