No fewer than 12 doctors were busy vaccinating patients at the Lindenholt health centre in Nijmegen this week. And that was not enough to deal with the flood of candidates. The line started in front of the rooms where the vaccinations took place, ran past the phone operator, past the receptionist, through the lobby, onto the sidewalk, across the parking lot. There were people waiting on the other side of the street.

Medical nurse Stephanie Christ-Willemse was busy dealing with people who phoned in with questions. Those who had a cold worried it was actually H1N1 (swine flu or Mexican flu, as it is referred to in the Netherlands). Others wondered why their neighbour was eligible for vaccination but they weren't. Christ-Willemse spoke with one person who just wanted to say he was really scared about the flu. It showed, she said, "Anxiety is growing."

This week 5.8 million H1N1 vaccines were delivered to family doctors and health centres in the Netherlands. The general practitioners in Nijmegen were amongst the first to give the shots to patients. The vaccines were delivered only hours before the first seniors, diabetics and people with heart and respiratory problems arrived. Peter Colberts was amongst those waiting on Wednesday. "I am not afraid of the flu," he said, tapping his chest, "but I have heart issues, so it's for the best."

Children dying

The flu is making people nervous, but so is the government's vaccines policy. Why has the health ministry decided not to give the shots to children, despite the fact that five have already died? And why did it choose to get two doses for each citizen, while other European governments think one is enough? There is also uncertainty about the side affects. Should pregnant women get the shots? The health ministry hasn't decided. Physicians admit they themselves don't have all the answers. Awaiting further instructions from the ministry and the National Institute for Public Health, RIVM, it is up to them to solve the dilemmas they are confronted with.

One of the predicaments they face is whether they themselves should be vaccinated. The ministry has called on health professionals to do so, but medical nurse Heidi Jans wasn't sure she wanted it. "So little is known about the side effects," she said as she and her colleagues in Nijmegen were resting after having administered shots to 1,000 people that day. A co-worker said she owed it to her patients to take it, but Jans was unconvinced.

Wim Segers, a family doctor in Zwolle, said he gets many questions about the side effects, the bluntness of the needles and the seriousness of the flu itself. "Two or three weeks ago, few people wanted the shots. But now that children have died from it, the mood has turned around completely. People are very emotional about it."

The questions really started coming in after news that a 14-year-old with no underlying illness died from the virus two weeks ago. In total 17 people in the Netherlands have not survived the H1N1 flu.

Risk of running out

Some people who call Segers now compare the flu to the Spanish flu epidemic that took millions of lives after World War I. And many who are not eligible for the first round of vaccinations are begging for it. The doctors in Nijmegen and Zwolle refuse to give it to them, even though they have plenty stored up in their fridges.

Other doctors are more pragmatic about it. Herbert Wagenaar Hummelinck, a family doctor from Delft, has given the shots to people who are not on the list of risk groups. But he said he will discontinue this because the turn-out of those who were called in is very high. "I don't want to run the risk of running out." But if any are left over in two weeks, he will give the 8 euro shots to anyone who asks for them.

He has been told to keep the leftovers for the second round of vaccinations in December. "But my responsibility is with my patients," Wagenaar Hummelinck said. "Some are hysterical. It takes us a lot of time to explain the procedures and weigh the risks. The minister may say I shouldn't do this, but then he should have made his mind up sooner."

Nurse Jans did make her mind up in the end. After her hesitation earlier in the day, she showed the spot on her right arm where she let a colleague give her the shot. "But if I call in sick tomorrow, you know why," she said.