About 10,000 seasonal flu vaccines worth over €20,000 were thrown away every year because they were not used, Community Care Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea said yesterday.

"This is a very frustrating situation and a waste of taxpayers' money. It makes me very angry," Mr Galea said.

Addressing a meeting with parents and teachers at a primary school in Żejtun, Mr Galea expressed his frustration at the annual wastage of seasonal vaccines, which are free for people aged 55 years and over and those suffering from chronic illnesses.

This shocked a parent who said: "Why doesn't the government launch an education campaign saying how many vaccines are wasted every year? As a taxpayer, this figure disturbs me."

Public Health Director Ray Busuttil explained that ordering vaccines was a difficult process. "It's a very tight balance. We evaluate how much was not taken the year before and consider how many people should take it," he said.

But, he added, there was no wastage in other types of vaccines.

The Maltese were slightly sceptical when it came to taking vaccines, Mr Galea admitted. "We have over 200,000 swine flu vaccines that were not used, which we bought at about €3 each."

The government yesterday launched an information campaign encouraging parents to administer the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, also known as the MMR, to children.

This campaign forms part of a larger one organised by the World Health Organisation to have all children vaccinated for MMR by the end of this year.

Mr Galea pointed to a similar campaign in 2002 that had failed miserably because a "fraudster" researcher, who wanted to sell his own vaccines, had published a scientific paper claiming a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

Although it has since been established there was no link, there was still a strong fear in Malta, Mr Galea said. In fact, Malta's take-up of the MMR vaccine was 10 per cent lower than the EU average of 96 per cent. In 2007, 86 per cent took the first dose, which is administered at 15 months, and 82 per cent took the booster dose administered when the children were eight.

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