As the leaves change color and the air turns cold, it’s once again time to think about the flu — and getting yourself and your family vaccinated.
Cases of the flu can appear as early as October, but the flu season generally peaks from January to February. However, by getting a flu vaccine for yourself and your family now, you’ll be taking advantage of the most effective mode of prevention.
The Centers for Disease Control currently recommends that everyone older than 6 months receive the vaccine as soon as it becomes available. Those at highest risk of developing severe complications are young children, pregnant women, people with chronic conditions like asthma or diabetes, and those above age 65. If you care for somebody in a high risk group, whether in a health care setting or at home, getting the vaccine would help prevent spreading infection to them.
Most people have long been familiar with the constellation of symptoms — fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, muscle aches, headaches, and fatigue. But the emergence of the swine flu, or novel H1N1 virus, last year, created tremendous anxiety due to its global spread and concerns about the vaccine produced to protect against it. Because of its relatively late emergence last year, a separate vaccine specific to H1N1 had to be prepared in addition to the seasonal flu vaccine. While separate, this vaccine was not new, but was produced by a longstanding process that has been used to prepare the seasonal vaccine. As expected, there were no unforeseen complications.
The vaccine for the 2010-2011 season will consist of three strains — Influenza A H3N2, Influenza B and H1N1 — which, as in past years, were selected based on worldwide surveillance as the likely causes of the flu this year. In order to produce adequate quantities of vaccine, production had to have begun approximately six months ago.
The success of the vaccine in preventing the flu and its complications depends on how good a “match” there is between the viruses included in the vaccine and those actually prevalent and causing infections in the community. Even if there is some mismatch, antibodies produced against one strain may still offer some protection against related, yet distinct strains. In addition, since the vaccine contains three strains, there will still be protection against the other two viruses.
Make sure everyone in your family knows to cover his mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, frequently wash his hands with soap and water or use an alcohol-based rub, and stay home with the flu for at least 24 hours after his fever is gone. Aside from these simple measures, anti-viral medications like Tamiflu® and Relenza® are available by prescription and may shorten symptoms, reduce its severity and decrease the occurrence of complications. However, in order to be effective, these drugs must be initiated within two days of the onset of illness.
The bottom line, however, is that the single most effective way to avoid the flu in your family is getting the vaccine. Don’t dawdle — GET VACCINATED!
