Public health chiefs at NHS Bradford and Airedale have issued new factsheets to be used by GPs across the district explaining why it is important for pregnant women to have a jab to guard against swine flu.

This year, for the first time, all pregnant women are being offered the seasonal flu vaccination because it protects against the H1N1 virus (swine flu) which is circulating this winter.

They are urged to have the jab because if they catch this strain they are at greater risk of a severe disease.

Bradford Royal Infirmary has experienced a number of severe cases of seasonal flu and, as reported in Saturday’s Telegraph & Argus, a young mother died of suspected swine flu at the hospital last week. The woman, 20, is understood to have given birth in the last few weeks.

  • See the full story in the T&A