Management at the hospital which serves North Tipp, as well as Limerick and Clare are asking parents to sign kids up for the free nasal spray vaccine.
Children are twice as likely to get the flu and it stays in their system for longer meaning they’re more likely to pass it on as well.
U-H-L was nearly twice as overcrowded as they next busiest hospital in the country last month.
And Paediatric Respiratory Consultant at the Children’s Ark, Dr Daryl Butler says they’re expecting to see a lot of sick kids before the end of the year
”The risk of flu for children, especially those with an underlying health condition,
can be reduced through the use of the widely available nasal flu vaccines which are easy, painless and safe.
”Not only will the vaccine help them avoid flu, but it also significantly reduces the risk of hospitalization in those more serious cases. At UHL Children’s Ark over the coming six to eight weeks, we are expecting to see the same spike of flu infections in children that we have seen in previous years. Children are already presenting to the hospital with an increasing number of breathing illnesses.
“Flu symptoms can be minor for some, but quite significant for others, particularly those with pre-existing past or long conditions. In the past 10 years in Ireland, in fact, almost 5,000 children were admitted to hospital with complications of flu, just under 200 were treated in an intensive care unit.
”Over the past year, UHL saw 135 children admitted to our paediatric high-dependency unit. 42% of those children required some form of breathing supports. Many more were treated as in-patients on our wards.
”Thankfully, to a large degree, this illness can be avoided in children through the use of simple interventions such as hand washing, coughing and sneezing etiquette, as well as availing of the nasal flu vaccine.”
