Vaccination against swine flu will be mandatory for all students of private and public schools in the UAE when schools open in September, the director general of the Ministry of Health has said.
Vaccination will be mandatory for the country’s 630,000 students and will be free of charge, Dr Ali Bin Shakar told UAE daily Emarat Alyoum.
Only children over the age of five are included in the programme, which will cost the government around AED3.2m ($871,000).
Students and teachers who contract the virus will be suspended for five to seven days, and authorities could order schools shut in the case of a severe outbreak, Shakar added.
The UAE Ministry of Health has launched an awareness campaign to educate students, parents and teachers about the disease.
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