Public Health England has urged parents from Burton, Uttoxeter and South Derbyshire to make sure their children are vaccinated against flu ahead of the winter period.
For the first time this year, school children in year 4, can receive the free flu vaccination. Youngsters aged at least four, in reception classes, along with youngsters in school years onne, two and three can receive a free flu vaccination.
The preventative medicine is available to be delivered in schools in the form of a nasal spray.
An incredible 170,000 children across the West Midlands will be able to receive the vaccination to prevent the flu this winter.
Public Health England's chief medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies said: "Any child can catch flu; thousands do every year and some end up in hospital as a result. Parents should not be complacent – the single most effective way to protect your children against flu this winter is to get them vaccinated with the simple nasal spray.
"Children can be super spreaders so getting them vaccinated not only protects them but also those around them."
Children between the ages of two and three are also offered the vaccine through a nasal spray, however statistics from Public Health England show that just 14 per cent of children in this age group have received the vaccination.
During 2016, around 62 per cent of children between the ages of two and four, and a further 45 per cent of school children missed out on the vaccine, with a target of 65 per cent of all children between two and eight years old being set to receive the vaccination.
Paul Crosford, the director for health protection and medical director at Public Health England, said: "Vaccinating those who are most likely to get flu both protects them and offers indirect protection to the rest of the population by reducing the amount of virus circulating.
"Flu can be much more dangerous for children than many parents realise and when children get flu they tend to spread it around the whole family. The child vaccination programme is really beneficial in reducing the spread of flu to other more vulnerable family members for whom flu can be very serious."
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