Every child older than 6 months should get vaccinated against influenza this year, health officials recommended for the first time yesterday.

Flu experts said the best way to shield vulnerable seniors and infants is to vaccinate schoolchildren, who often spread the virus.

Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also called it "unconscionable" that only 42 percent of healthcare workers chose to get vaccinated last year.

Flu is blamed for 200,000 hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths a year, mostly among the elderly. About 86 children died in the last flu season.

CDC officials said Hawai'i's influenza vaccination rates are 78.6 percent of seniors; 43.1 percent of at-risk people ages 18 to 49; and 29.8 of children ages 6 months to 23 months old. Children's rates are from September through December 2006; adult rates are from the 2006-07 flu season.

Until now, flu vaccine was recommended only for children under 5 and those with chronic health problems like asthma. But healthy school-age children actually have higher rates of flu than other age groups, and research increasingly shows they spread it to the rest of us.

Any child under 9 who's being vaccinated for the first time will need two doses, a month apart. A single dose suffices for everyone else.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.