A GP has issued urgent advice to parents of toddlers amid a rise in children being hospitalised with a winter illness. There has been a rise in the number of typically healthy children going to hospitals across Greater Manchester with flu, according to a top doctor.
Some children have even faced intensive care treatment as the flu season takes hold, says Dr Helen Wall, a Bolton GP and the Clinical Director Population Health for Greater Manchester. The doctor added common viruses have “got their mojo back” this year following protective measures taken during the pandemic, which reduced the spread of not only coronavirus but other regular winter illnesses.
The GP is encouraging “any parent” of a child in the two to three-year-old age group to get them vaccinated, with important advice on how old they have to be to get it. A nasal spray against the flu is on offer for young children through GP practices, but historically the region has seen a low uptake of the children’s vaccine.
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“We have seen recently a rise in our children in hospitals across Greater Manchester with flu. Particularly in those young children, two and three-year-olds,” explained Dr Wall in a live interview with the Manchester Evening News .
“We’ve seen some very, very sick children in our hospitals, even in intensive care in some extremely unlucky and unfortunate cases. And we’re talking about healthy two to three-year-olds, not those who have other health problems.”
“Nobody wants to see a well two, three-year-old in hospital with flu” warned Dr Wall, as Christmas approaches.
“Historically, every year, we have a relatively low uptake of our child nasal flu vaccine,” she added. “It’s not an injection, it’s just a bit of liquid that’s squirted up each nostril, it takes two minutes.
“I would strongly encourage any parent to come forward with their child to have that at their GP practice. I’ve got three children, I know it’s hard when you’re working, juggling - Christmas is coming and you’ve got 101 things to do.
“But nobody wants to see a well two, three-year-old in hospital with flu.”
Children can get the vaccine through primary school, but toddlers miss out on this offer. Instead, they can get the spray through their GP.
“The flu vaccine is given throughout our primary school programme. If your child is in a primary school, they will have been vaccinated or brought a letter home telling you they’re about to be,” added Dr Wall.
“I’ve had a couple of queries saying my child was off school with a different infection that day and missed it. There will be mop up sessions going round schools to catch those individuals who didn’t have it.
“The two to three-year-olds are obviously not going to be covered at school. Unfortunately as yet, although I’d like to see it change, we don’t have a programme going into all our childcare settings for this age group. So the [nasal spray for this age group] is a GP offer and it’s any child that is two or three on the 31st August of this year.
“You can contact your practice or they will be hopefully contacting you to get that nasal flu vaccination there.”
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