Don’t miss your flu vaccination

Local people are being urged to have their flu vaccination to protect adults and children at risk of flu and its complications.

A new ‘booster’ vaccine is being made available for all those aged 65 and over which should provide more effective protection than the current vaccines. The NHS is also making available a new vaccine, which is currently used for all children under 18 years of age and all adults in the atrisk group aged between 16 to 64 years.

Flu can be unpleasant, but if you are otherwise healthy it will usually clear up on its own within a week. However, flu can be more severe for certain people, such as:

• those aged 65 and over;

• pregnant women;

• children and adults with an underlying health condition (such as longterm heart or respiratory disease); and

• children and adults with weakened immune systems.

Anyone in these at risk groups is more likely to develop potentially serious complications of flu, such as pneumonia (a lung infection), so it’s recommended that they

have a flu vaccine every year to protect themselves.

The flu vaccine is offered free on the NHS annually to:

• adults over the age of 18 at risk of flu (including everyone aged 65 and over)

• pregnant women

• children aged between 2 and 9 years

Look out for more information at your local GP surgery or Pharmacy or visit www.nhs.uk/staywell to find out more about who is eligible to have the vaccine – particularly for children.