Aged 18 to 65 years and have certain long-term health conditions or if you are pregnant flu vaccination checklist 2026/27 Sharnbrook Surgery

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 winter to people at higher risk of getting seriously ill from flu.

Who cannot have the flu vaccine

You should not receive Cell-based Trivalent Influenza Vaccine Seqirus:

If you are allergic to:

• the active ingredients or any of the other ingredients of this medicine (listed below)

• beta-propiolactone, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, or polysorbate 80, which are trace residues from the manufacturing process.

Ingredients

A/Missouri/11/2025 (H1N1)pdm09-like strain (A/Tasmania/318/2025, CVR-351) 15 micrograms, A/Darwin/1415/2025 (H3N2)-like strain (A/Darwin/1415/2025, CVR-400) 15 micrograms HA. B/Pennsylvania/14/2025-like strain (B/Arizona/21/2025, wild type) 15 micrograms HA

The other ingredients are: sodium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium chloride hexahydrate, disodium phosphate dihydrate, potassium dihydrogen phosphate and water for injections.

Side effects of the flu vaccine

The most common side effects of the flu vaccine are mild and get better Mild side effects

Very common (may affect more than 1 in 10 people):

• Injection site pain, bruising, reddening and hardening or swelling at the site of the injection

• Headache

• Muscle pain  

• Tiredness 

• Loss of appetite

More serious side effects such as a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) are very rare. The person who vaccinates you will be trained to deal with allergic reactions and treat them immediately.

The injected flu vaccines used in the UK do not contain live flu viruses. They cannot give you flu. The vaccine usually takes up to 14 days to work.