The flu vaccine helps protect against flu, which can be a serious or life-threatening illness. It’s offered on the NHS every year in autumn or early winter to people at higher risk of getting seriously ill from flu.
Who should have the flu vaccine
The following groups of people are eligible for a flu vaccine from 1 September 2024 as part of the NHS flu immunization programme:
- Pregnant women at any stage of pregnancy (including those who become pregnant during the influenza season).
- All children aged 2 or 3 years on 31 August 2024.
- All primary school-aged children (from reception to year 6).
- Secondary school-aged children (from year 7 to year 11).
- All children in clinical risk groups aged from 6 months to less than 18 years.
The following groups of people are eligible for a flu vaccine from 3 October 2024 as part of the NHS flu immunization programme:
- People aged 65 years and over (including those who are 64 but will be 65 on or before March 2025).
People living in long-stay residential care homes or other long-stay care facilities (not including prisons, young offender’s institutions, or university halls of residence). - People in receipt of a carer’s allowance or those who are the primary carer of an elderly or disabled person.
- Close contacts of immunocompromised people.
- All frontline social care staff without an employer-led occupational scheme, including those employed by:
- A registered residential care or nursing home.
- A registered domiciliary care provider.
- A voluntary managed hospice provider.
- Direct Payment (personal budgets) and/or Personal Health Budgets, such as personal assistants.
- People aged 18 years to under 65 years in the following clinical risk groups:
| Clinical risk group | Representative examples |
| Chronic respiratory disease | Asthma that requires continuous or repeated use of inhaled or systemic steroids or with previous exacerbations requiring hospital admission. |
| Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis, emphysema, bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis, interstitial lung fibrosis, pneumoconiosis, and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). | |
| Children who have previously been admitted to hospital for lower respiratory tract disease. | |
| Chronic heart disease and vascular disease | Congenital heart disease, hypertension with cardiac complications, chronic heart failure, and people requiring regular medication or follow-up for ischaemic heart disease. This includes individuals with atrial fibrillation, peripheral vascular disease or a history of venous thromboembolism. |
| Chronic kidney disease | Chronic kidney disease stage 3, 4, or 5, chronic kidney failure, nephrotic syndrome, and renal transplantation. |
| Chronic liver disease | Cirrhosis, biliary atresia, and chronic hepatitis. |
| Chronic neurological disease (included in the DES directions for Wales) | Stroke, transient ischaemic attack (TIA). Conditions in which respiratory function may be compromised due to neurological or neuromuscular disease (for example people with polio syndrome). |
| Clinicians should offer immunization, based on individual assessment, to clinically vulnerable individuals including those with cerebral palsy, severe or profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD), Down’s syndrome, multiple sclerosis, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, motor neurone disease and related or similar conditions; or hereditary and degenerative disease of the nervous system or muscles; or severe neurological disability. | |
| Diabetes and adrenal insufficiency | Type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes requiring insulin or oral hypoglycaemic drugs, diet-controlled diabetes. Addison’s disease, secondary or tertiary adrenal insufficiency requiring steroid replacement. |
| Immunosuppression | Immunosuppression due to disease or treatment, including patients undergoing chemotherapy leading to immunosuppression, patients undergoing radical radiotherapy, solid organ transplant recipients, bone marrow or stem cell transplant recipients, people living with HIV (at all stages), multiple myeloma or genetic disorders affecting the immune system (for example, IRAK-4, NEMO, complement disorder, SCID). Individuals who are receiving immunosuppressive or immunomodulating biological therapy including, but not limited to, anti-TNF- alemtuzumab, ofatumumab, rituximab, patients receiving protein kinase inhibitors or PARP inhibitors, and individuals treated with steroid-sparing agents such as cyclophosphamide and mycophenolate mofetil. |
| Individuals treated with or likely to be treated with systemic steroids for more than a month at a dose equivalent to prednisolone at 20 mg or more per day (any age), or for children under 20 kg, a dose of 1 mg or more per kg per day. | |
| Anyone with a history of haematological malignancy, including leukaemia, lymphoma, and myeloma and those with systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis who may require long-term immunosuppressive treatments. | |
| Some immunocompromised patients may have a suboptimal immunological response to the vaccine. | |
| Asplenia or splenic dysfunction | This also includes conditions such as homozygous sickle cell disease, hereditary spherocytosis, thalassemia major and coeliac syndrome that may lead to splenic dysfunction. |
| Morbid obesity (class III obesity) | Adults with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 kg/m2 or greater. |
When you should have the flu vaccine
Most eligible adults will be able to get the flu vaccine from 3 October 2024.
This may be later than you’ve had the vaccine before, but it means you’ll have the best protection when flu is most widespread.
How to get the flu vaccine
If you are eligible for an NHS flu vaccine, please get your vaccine at WellBN. We will contact you to arrange your appointment.
Having the flu vaccine at the same time as other vaccines
You can have the flu vaccine at the same time as other vaccines such as the COVID-19 vaccine and shingles vaccine.
Who cannot have the flu vaccine
Most people who are eligible for the flu vaccine can have it.
You only cannot have the vaccine if you’ve had a serious allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) to a previous dose of the vaccine or an ingredient in the vaccine.
Some of the flu vaccines used in the UK contain egg protein. Tell the person vaccinating you if you have an egg allergy.
Information:
Getting vaccinated if you’re unwell
If you have a high temperature, wait until you’re feeling better before having your flu vaccine.Side effects of the flu vaccine
How well the flu vaccine works and how long it lasts
The flu vaccine aims to protect you against the most common types of flu viruses. There’s still a chance you might get flu after getting vaccinated, but it’s likely to be milder and not last as long. The vaccine usually takes up to 14 days to work. Protection from the flu vaccine goes down with time and the types of flu virus the vaccine protects against are updated each year. This is why it’s important to get the flu vaccine every year.