Having an older sibling poses risk of serious flu 

Children under two years are more likely to be admitted to hospital with influenza if they have an older sister or brother, according to UCL-led research published today in the European Respiratory Journal. Flu can be serious in very young children because it can cause lung infections and breathing difficulties. It can also cause a very high fever, leading to fits called febrile convulsions. But researchers behind the new study say babies and young children can be better protected if parents take up the opportunity to get older siblings vaccinated. She said: "Flu can be a serious infection in very young children but at the moment there is no vaccine approved for babies under six months. This means we need to look at other ways to minimise the risk of infection." The researchers studied almost all children born in Scotland between October 2007 and April 2015, about 400,000 in total. They used anonymised hospital admissions and laboratory data to find out which children had a record of a positive laboratory test result for flu and compared this with other routinely collected information, such as month of birth, whether they were premature or had other health conditions, and whether the children had older siblings.