Flu vaccines should be available from next week after a brief delay in their provision worried habitual users. “We’re still in time because the flu season doesn’t hit our shores until after Christmas,” the president of the Association of Private Family Doctors, Anthony Azzopardi, said.

But as the winter clouds rolled on in October, people started enquiring with doctors and local councils about the yearly flu jab programme only to be told that the vaccines had not yet arrived.

A spokesman for the Parliamentary Secretariat for the Elderly said that a consignment of anti-flu injections, which gives elderly and vulnerable people peace of mind during the winter months, was expected before November 21.

“The influenza season in Malta starts later than in northern countries. It’s important to take the jab before the season starts but you don’t need to take it some four months before,” Dr Azzopardi said.

The flu season would start roughly by the end of December and the jab should be taken two to three weeks before.

Influenza usually only causes inconvenience but it can also give rise to serious health complications.

• Flu is a contagious respiratory disease caused by the influenza virus.

• It is spread by coughing, sneezing and nasal secretions.

• Everyone is susceptible to infection.

• The most vulnerable are children, the elderly (from 55 years), pregnant women and individuals with chronic health problems.