The entire national stock of influenza vaccines has been used up after a “highly successful” government incentive, according to Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia.

The stock was depleted fewer than three weeks after the free vaccination programme began.

Addressing a press conference, Dr Farrugia said so many people had opted to take the inoculation that the government purchased the remaining private stock to continue providing free jabs.

“This year’s stock was substantially larger than last year’s and we still used it all. This is good news,” he said.

He said a record 75,000 jabs were bought this year along with several hundred purchased once stocks ran dry. Last year, on the other hand, some 8,000 vaccines were discarded after going unused.

Michael Borg, who heads the Infection Control Clinic, said the government had been identifying patients with chronic influenza and urging them to take the vaccination.

This is good news

Every year between five and 15 per cent of Maltese get a cold, resulting in as many as 30,000 filing for sick leave.

Dr Borg referred to figures identifying Malta as having the highest consumption of antibiotics across the EU released last week.

The “worrying” eurobarometer figures showed that 48 per cent of Maltese had used antibiotics last year.

November marks World Antibiotic Awareness month. Dr Borg said Maltese patients were three times more likely to take antibiotics for a sore throat than those from the other 27 member states.

In order to combat this, Dr Borg said the government had embarked on “another successful” education campaign.

The survey showed Malta had the fourth-largest attitude change across the EU.

“This shows how successful our efforts have been,” he said, adding that heavy dependence on antibiotics was an EU-wide problem.