Vaccines for the next flu season expected to start in the fall have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with health officials recommending all 6 month olds and older to be vaccinated.

The husband of an Aberdeen woman who died of swine flu claimed yesterday, his wife could have survived if paramedics had had her hospitalised sooner.

Ambulance staff was initially called to treat Panumad Edwards decided not to take her to hospital, after they diagnosed her as suffering from a severe bout of ordinary flu.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) confirmed taxpayers had indemnified pharmaceutical giant CSL against any lawsuits related to the swine flu vaccine, even as health authorities investigate a discolouration affecting the national stockpile of H1N1 virus vaccines.

The H1N1 virus killed a recruit at a US army training centre back in 1976, and appeared to be closely related to the Spanish Flu virus that killed 50 million people worldwide at the end of the First World War.

Research shows swine flu vaccine tests on children in Oxford resulted in relatively minor side effects, appearing to provide good protection against the illness.

The study by the Health Protection Agency and universities of Bristol, Southampton, Exeter and St George’s in London, recruited around 900 children for the vaccine trial in centres across the UK, including Oxford.

The Drug Controller General recently gave Zydus Cadila the green signal to market their H1N1 vaccine.

Even while, federal health officials carry out an investigation of the first hints of significant complications from the H1N1 vaccine, they stress the concerns will probably turn out to be a false alarm.

According to a complete analysis of deaths among expectant mothers, many pregnant women stricken by swine flu last year were saved, as they received quick treatment with flu medicine.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirming the dangers the disease holds for this group, counted 56 pregnant women who died from the new virus in 2009.