BRUSSELS, July 8 (Reuters) - The European Commission urged EU member states on Wednesday to increase seasonal flu vaccination and vaccine production to help the elderly and most vulnerable.
The executive Commission said it hoped that by 2015 some 75 percent of people over the age of 65 and 75 percent of people with underlying health problems would be vaccinated annually.
This would amount to nearly a quarter of the European Union's population of almost 500 million people, it said.
"We need to act now to step up our vaccine capacity for both seasonal flu and A H1N1, and we only have a narrow time frame to do so," Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said.
"This initiative helps limit the effects of seasonal flu in the most vulnerable groups," she said in a written statement.
The Commission called for the 27 EU member states to report annually on vaccination coverage, and then report progress every three years after 2015. It called for more education and training for health care workers dealing with influenza.
The Commission proposed each member country adopt a national action plan to meet the goals. Vaccination rates in the elderly vary from a high of 80 percent in the Netherlands to a low of 2 percent in Lithuania, according to the Commission.
The elderly population and people with underlying medical conditions such as diabetes or asthma are considered the most vulnerable against seasonal flu, which results in an estimated 40,000 to 200,000 deaths each year in the EU.
Flu vaccine manufacturers increased production of seasonal flu vaccines in June and aim to produce a vaccine against the pandemic H1N1 flu virus.
At least 30 companies worldwide produce flu vaccine, including Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis, Baxter International, GlaxoSmithKline and Solvay.
(Reporting by Caroline Linton, editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)