October marks the beginning of autumn and the official start of the seasonal flu vaccination programme for 2013/2014. The Public Health Agency (PHA) is urging all people whose health could be seriously affected by flu to get the free flu vaccine. GPs across Northern Ireland will be inviting the over 65s, pregnant women, and children and adults with some serious medical conditions to have the flu vaccine as flu can be particularly serious for these groups.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so the Public Health Agency (PHA) is urging all women to be ‘breast aware’ and to think about attending for screening when invited. In 2011/12 a total of 76,179 women aged 50–70 were invited for screening with 55,819 attending. This means that more than a quarter of women who were invited did not take up the offer of screening mammography.

Smoking is the single greatest cause of preventable illness, premature death and health inequality throughout Northern Ireland with around 2,300 people dying prematurely each year from smoking-related illnesses such as coronary heart disease, stroke and many cancers. With this in mind the Public Health Agency (PHA) is urging all local smokers to support ‘Stoptober’ – a campaign running in England and Wales to encourage smokers to go smoke-free during the month of October.

A pilot pharmacy project which focuses on improving the sexual health of young women and reducing teenage pregnancy is being launched today by the Public Health Agency (PHA) and Health and Social Care Board (HSCB). The ‘Be Safe’ Belfast pilot has been developed to enable community pharmacies to provide sexual health assessment to women aged between 16 and 19 years old. The pilot service will initially be offered in North and West Belfast. The primary aim of the service is to reduce the teenage pregnancy levels in these areas.

The Public Health Agency (PHA) is launching a new routine shingles vaccination programme, available from 1 October, for all people aged 70 and a catch-up programme for people aged 79 years old to help protect against the common and painful skin disease.

Now that autumn is underway, the Public Health Agency (PHA) is reminding parents of primary six children who are in the first phase of the childhood flu programme to avail of the flu vaccine. This year the vaccine will be offered to school year primary six as well as children aged two and three years. The vaccine will help protect children against flu and reduce its spread. School nurses will be administering the flu vaccine to primary six children at schools across Northern Ireland from the beginning of October 2013.

This is sexual health week and the Public Health Agency (PHA) is stressing the importance of looking after sexual health by urging people who are sexually active to takes steps to protect themselves and their partner by being safer and using condoms.

A conference in Armagh today highlighted two new diabetes services introduced over the past 3 years, with funding provided by the European Union’s INTERRERG IVA programme, which are proving to be a great success. The first service, called the CHOICE programme is for children and young people who have diabetes. The second service is specifically for women planning pregnancy who attend Pre-pregnancy Care clinics in their local areas.

As students return to colleges and universities the Public Health Agency (PHA) is reminding students during Meningitis Awareness Week (16-22 September) to be aware of the signs and symptoms of meningitis as it could save a life. Teenagers and young adults (14 - 24 years old) are more at risk than older adults, especially when away from home with no parents around to look after them.