A comprehensive mechanism has been put in place to monitor serious adverse cases with a history of swine flu vaccination, Under Secretary for Food & Health Prof Gabriel Leung says.

Speaking on a radio talk show this morning, Prof Leung said all adverse cases must be reported to the Centre for Health Protection, adding a centralised system will be used to analyse them. An expert group will scrutinise serious cases and release the information to the public.

He said more than 80 million people across the world have received the vaccines and the World Health Organisation has found that the risk of getting adverse effects from the swine flu vaccine is not higher than that of seasonal flu vaccine.

About 1,500 appointments are set for children to receive free human swine flu vaccinations at student health service centres. The Government may allow those without appointments to receive vaccinations if the daily quota is still available.

Up to yesterday, about 530 private doctors had registered with the Government to order human swine flu vaccines. Their information can been found on the Centre for Health Protection website.

Urging frontline healthcare staff to receive vaccinations, Prof Leung said the Hospital Authority has formulated a contingency plan to deal with the second wave of human swine flu.