Following a local outbreak in a school in Stockport, local GPs, Stockport Council and partners are urging parents and guardians to get the free flu vaccination for those children who are eligible.
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- Stockport Council
The vaccine is available free for children who are:
– Aged 2, 3 and 4 on August 31 2016 – that is, children born between September 1 2011 and August 31 2014 (given at your local GP)
– 6 months to 17 with long-term health conditions such as asthma, and other respiratory diseases, liver, kidney and neurological conditions including learning disabilities, even if well managed (given at your local GP)
– In school years 1, 2 and 3 (given in schools)
Flu can be horrible for little children and if they get it, they can spread it around the whole family.
Councillor Tom McGee, Stockport Council’s Executive Member for Health, said: “It’s really important for our local children to have the flu vaccination. The flu vaccine will not only help to protect children from getting flu, it will also stop the disease spreading from them to their families, grandparents, carers and the wider local population.”
Dr Viren Mehta, a local GP and NHS Stockport CCG’s Clinical Director, added “Flu can be a particularly unpleasant illness for children because they suffer all the same symptoms as adults. In some cases it also leads to serious complications that are life threatening, so it makes no sense not to protect your child against the flu by making sure your child is vaccinated.”
Those children who are eligible will have been invited by their GP for a vaccine, so please do go along.
The flu campaign is supported by Stockport Council, the NHS Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group and the Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, NHS England and Public Health England.
For further information about the flu vaccine and for a list of the other at-risk groups that are recommended to have the vaccine visit www.stockport.gov.uk/
