Extra strong flu jab helps avoid stroke

GIVING elderly people a flu jab with four times the normal dose could protect them against a stroke or heart attack, according to research.

A study of 38,000 nursing home residents found the ‘quadruple’ vaccine dramatically reduced hospital admissions for any illness, including cardiovascular disease.

Each year thousands of older people are admitted to hospital with pneumonia, bronchitis and influenza. Serious lung infections can trigger a heart attack or stroke.

The risk of hospitalisation for respiratory illness was 12.7 percent less for those given the high dose vaccine. But it did not significantly reduce the rate of death among patients, possibly because the standard jab may still have been sufficient to prevent deaths in combination with hospital care.

The study in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal, was carried out by scientists at Brown University in the US.