Flu vaccination urged for young children

The vaccine is given as a nasal spray to children

In East Sussex, Kent and Medway fewer than half of all three-year-olds were vaccinated for flu in 2022-2023. More than 40% of eligible vulnerable adults under the age of 65 did not get vaccinated in the same period.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said for some children flu can be "life threatening".

It said parents of pre-schoolers should book a GP appointment for the nasal spray vaccine that "protects them against flu".

Recent analysis found that getting vaccinated cuts the risk of being taken to hospitals due to flu by two-thirds in children and by a quarter in adults over the age of 65.

Three-year-olds vaccinated for flu in 2022-23

• Brighton and Hove: 51.1%

• East Sussex: 47%

• Kent: 47.1%

• Medway: 44.8%

• Surrey: 58.1%

• West Sussex: 56%

Health experts regard children as "super-spreaders", passing the virus more easily to those around them.

Flu can be an extremely unpleasant illness in children, with those under the age of five being more likely to be hospitalised due to flu than any other age group.

Experts believe vaccinating children helps protect them in the first instance, so that they can stay in school and parents do not have to take time off work.

It also stops them from passing on flu to older relatives and other vulnerable groups, who can suffer from the complications from the disease.

The childhood flu vaccine is believed to help to prevent thousands of hospitalisations and deaths from flu every winter.

Dr Anjali Pai, health protection consultant at the UKHSA, said: "We know that last year deaths from flu were far more than Covid.

"We know that tens of thousands of hospitalisations of children were because of flu and could have been prevented by getting the vaccine.”

The UKHSA says children with a long-term health condition are at higher risk of being admitted to hospital.