PREVENTING THE FLU: VACCINES TO THE RESCUE
But unlike colds, there are many fewer viruses that cause the flu, and despite their fickle nature, it is possible to prevent the flu by an annual vaccine taken weeks before the flu season. Researchers worldwide monitor the changes in the flu virus, and before each flu season, manufacturers are usually able to produce a revised vaccine that incorporates protection against the newest virus variants.
Chances are you’ve heard recommendations that flu vaccine be given annually to people over sixty-five, to people like the police and firefighters who perform essential services, and to anyone with a chronic illness like heart or lung disease or an immune deficiency that can turn even a mild flu into a deadly disease. Being a younger, healthy person in a “nonessential” occupation, perhaps you think the flu vaccine is not for you. Perhaps you view a bout with the flu as a mini-vacation, an excuse to escape from your normal duties. Or perhaps friends told you that when they took the vaccine, they got a reaction that was almost as bad as the flu itself.
Well, if any of these “perhapses” applies to you, think again. Anyone, regardless of age or health status, is entitled to and can benefit from flu vaccine, assuming the person can afford it. The public health recommendations about who should be immunized are designed to protect those at highest risk of suffering life-threatening complications from the flu. They were issued primarily because there simply isn’t enough flu vaccine to go around if every young, healthy person got the shot too. But times are changing, and new technologies and an increased number of vaccine producers have helped to expand the supply, which would no doubt grow larger if the demand for the vaccine were greater.
Having the flu is no fun, and chances are you’ll feel too ill to do any of those housebound projects you’ve been meaning to get around to. If you can’t afford to be flattened by the flu for a week or more, and debilitated for weeks longer, you’d be wise to get the vaccine in October or early November every year. Waiting until the flu hits your community is not wise; it usually takes two to three weeks after you receive the vaccine for your body to build up an immunity to the viruses. However, public health officials advise that high-risk individuals who were not previously immunized should get the vaccine even if a flu outbreak is already under way.
Vaccine side effects have been greatly exaggerated. It is biologically impossible to get the flu from the vaccine because the viruses in the vaccine are dead and incapable of invading and reproducing in your cells. All they can do is rev up your body’s immune system and prompt it to produce antibodies that would knock out the live flu viruses should you encounter them. If you do suffer a flulike reaction from the vaccine, chances are you are extremely susceptible to the viruses the vaccine is designed to protect against. If you were unprotected and contracted the flu from one of those live viruses, you would undoubtedly become extremely ill. It’s better by far to have a brief flulike vaccine reaction than the full-blown flu. The most common vaccine reaction is not illness at all but rather some minor redness and soreness at the site of the injection that goes away in a day or two.
There are, however, a few people who should not take flu vaccine. Since the vaccine is produced from viruses that are grown in eggs, those with a severe allergy to eggs should avoid it. People who are already suffering from an infectious illness had best let themselves recover before getting a flu shot. The vaccine can be given safely to very young children, although they commonly get more side effects than adults do. Babies over age six months who have ailments that place them in a high-risk category for serious complications of the flu can be given a so-called split-virus vaccine to minimize side effects.
Flu vaccine is effective, but it is not perfect. In general it is 70 to 90 percent effective in preventing the flu that is going around that year. Unfortunately, it is more effective in younger people than in the elderly, who most need its protection. Also, it has a time-limited benefit. Even if the flu viruses don’t change from one year to the next, the immunity induced by the vaccine only lasts about one year. So you would need to get an annual shot no matter how the virus behaves.
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