Even though it's still nice outside, it's not too early to start thinking about protecting yourself and your family during the upcoming influenza season. Each year, the flu causes approximately 36,000 deaths and more than 200,000 hospitalizations in the United States according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
An influenza vaccination is the most effective method for preventing influenza virus infection and its potentially severe complications. Dan Fick, MD, clinical professor of family medicine at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and campus health officer for the University of Iowa, talks about how you can prevent the flu from affecting your life:
What is an influenza vaccination?
There are two typical kinds:
- Flu shot—you give the vaccine by needle into the arm
- Nasal spray—set up for certain ages to be used instead of the shot
Who should get an influenza vaccination?
We want everyone who is:
- Six months of age through age 19
- Pregnant women
- Age 50 and older
There are certain populations of people who have chronic medical conditions who should always get a flu shot:
- Anyone living in a nursing home or a similar long-term care facility
- Health care workers
- Household contacts of somebody who would have problems if they got the flu
- Care givers of anybody six months of age or younger since we can't vaccinate them
You shouldn't get the vaccine if you:
- Have allergy to chicken eggs,
- Have had a reaction in the past
- Are sick at the time (fever). You should wait until the fever is gone before getting vaccinated.
How effective is the influenza vaccination?
It depends on how well they match the vaccine with the virus strains they think are circulating out there. Every year they try to do their best to pick, and typically they do a good job. In addition, the vaccine depends on the person's age and health status. It takes about two weeks to build up the antibodies against the virus so you can get full protection.
Are there risks involved in getting the influenza vaccination?
The flu shot itself is a killed virus. It's inactivated so you can't get the influenza from the shot. The nose spray is weakened, it's not killed, but it's weakened to the point that it doesn't cause influenza in the people that get the nose spray.
Typically, what are the side-effects from receiving an influenza vaccination?
With the shot you can expect soreness and sometimes redness and swelling around the site where the shot was given. Some people report low-grade fever and body aches. With the nose spray, you can have similar symptoms and then add runny nose. Sometimes people can get headaches from the nose spray.
Can the influenza vaccination give people the flu?
In some clinical studies on the nose spray, since it's not killed but weakened, there's been some very rare transmission of the influenza from the person that received the vaccine to somebody else. So the nose spray is not recommended in anybody who is pregnant, and it's only recommended for those age 2 years to 50.
Is it possible to get influenza, even though you did get vaccinated?
- Somebody could certainly be exposed to influenza right before they're vaccinated or even during that two week period, so their antibodies are not quite developed.
- It's possible that you pick up an influenza strain that's not in the vaccine.
- It's also possible that you're exhibiting the symptoms of influenza, but it's really not influenza—it's another type of respiratory virus, such as rhinovirus.
Unfortunately, some people do pick up influenza after being vaccinated, most often because they have a weakened immune system and never develop the antibodies needed.
The vaccine is still the best protection from flu, even when it doesn't exactly match what's circulating out there.
How easy is it to get an influenza vaccination each year?
It's very easy. Most physician offices and pharmacies have it. We've got both state- and local-level agencies that provide the vaccine.
This year for the seasonal flu, they're predicting no shortage of vaccine. We've all heard there's another strain of influenza A out there that we call Novel H1N1 and that vaccine is probably going to be delayed further into the fall than the seasonal campaign.
We'll have more information on that when it's available.
Could you briefly weigh the cost of getting an influenza vaccination against the cost of getting the flu?
Hundreds of thousands of people are hospitalized and tens of thousands of people die from typical seasonal flu every year. That's mostly preventable by receiving a simple vaccine. So I think given how readily available the vaccine is and how easy it is to get it, I would hope there's really no good reason not to get it. |
