URGENT - GET YOUR FLU SHOT, BUT FIRST TALK WITH YOUR DOCTOR
Those of us who are living in the Northern Hemisphere are being strongly urged to get our flu shots right away. According to the CDC, there was a terrible flu season in Australia, raising grave concerns about the coming flue season.
It is common practice for public health experts to look to the Southern Hemisphere’s influenza patterns for clues of what’s to come up north. In Australia this year, they saw an earlier-than-usual peak of flu cases and had a tough season overall. The predominant flu strain in Australia, as in recent years in the U.S., was the H3N2 virus, which generally causes more severe illness, particularly among the elderly. This strain causes more hospitalizations and deaths than other strains.
“It does lead you to believe that this H3N2 virus is definitely on the move and is changing, which is never a good situation,” says pediatrician Randy Bergen, clinical lead for the Kaiser Permanente flu vaccine program in Northern California. “It does make me a little bit more nervous than I am in general, looking ahead to the flu season.”
According to Bergen, the weekly surveillance data still show relatively small numbers of flu cases, but there have already been several flu-related deaths in California, which is a concern.
Looking to the Australian flu season doesn’t always predict the U.S. one. Experts have referenced that last year Australia had a mild flu season with several different influenza viruses circulating. Whereas the U.S. had a very long season with a new H3N2 variant emerging, says Dan Jernigan, head of the influenza division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The H3N2 variant has been added to the current American vaccine. However, creating the flu vaccine is an imprecise science because it’s hard to know which strains will circulate in the coming season because the virus can mutate quickly.
There is a consensus among experts that even if the flu vaccine doesn’t precisely match the strains that circulate, it’s still far better to get the vaccine. It protects against various strains that often circulate together, and there’s evidence that the vaccine lessens the duration and severity of the illness if you do get it.
Even an imperfect vaccine helps prevent the spread of the virus to others, including infants six months and under who can’t get a flu shot. Side effects of the current flu shot are usually minimal. The most common side effects from the injection are soreness and tenderness or swelling at the site of injection. Sometimes muscle aches, headache, and low-grade fever can also occur; this is relatively uncommon. More severe side effects are infrequent.
The CDC recommends that everyone over six months old gets vaccinated by the end of this month (October). It takes about two weeks to be protected by the vaccine, and protection usually lasts up to a year in healthy adults, though it can wear off more quickly for the elderly.
Two recent studies presented at ID Week, an annual meeting of infectious-disease specialists, showed that the flu vaccine reduced the severity of illness in adults by more than one-third and cut hospitalizations of children by half.
In one study, CDC researchers analyzed data from more than 40,000 patients hospitalized with influenza for five flu seasons. They found that patients between 18- and 64-years-old who came down with the H1N1 strain of the flu despite getting vaccinated had a 36% lower risk of dying, a 34% lower risk of mechanical ventilation and a 19% lower risk of ICU admission than patients who didn’t receive the vaccine.
People 65 and older who tested positive for the H1N1 flu strain despite having been vaccinated had a nearly one-third less chance of having to be admitted into the ICU than those who didn’t get the flu vaccine. There was no statistically significant difference in outcomes for patients with the H3N2 or B strains.
Those who were vaccinated were half as likely to be hospitalized than those who weren’t, says Angela Campbell, a medical officer at the CDC and lead author of another study.
Those of us with cancer are at a much higher risk for serious side effects from the flue. However, if you do have cancer, especially if you are having active treatment, it is essential that you speak with your oncologist before being vaccinated. Even though the vaccine is a dead vaccine, it is always better to discuss having the flu shot as well as any other vaccination with your doctors before you have them.
get your flu shot now
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Do I have a Cold or the FLU?
An Update as of December 2019-
The CDC says that the flu has arrived. They have made several suggestions about what you should watch for as the virus strikes early in 2019 in the Northern Hemisphere.
Do you have a cold or the flu? It’s not always easy to distinguish between a common cold and the more severe influenza virus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who are feeling under the weather need to watch out for some telltale signs.
According to the CDC, the first sign you should be aware of is the timing of the onset of symptoms. Flu symptoms tend to come on quickly, while people with a common cold usually feel their symptoms come on gradually. Flu symptoms tend to be more severe. Fevers and headaches are rare with a cold but more common with the flu.
All of this information is especially critical right now as the 2019/2020 flu season appears to be arriving early in many parts of the USA. People with cancer and those of us who are on active cancer treatments are most vulnerable.
The flu virus has already struck some parts of the USA. The Deep South states and Puerto Rico are experiencing high levels of people exhibiting influenza-like-illness. We should expect the virus to spread.
You can check out the CDC’s weekly map: see the link below.
The CDC also has a prevention page. (See link below)
Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report
Flu prevention page
cdc.gov/flu/prevent/index.html
