Influenza shots work, doctors say

While there’s little we can do to prevent natural disasters, such as a flood or an earthquake, we all can protect ourselves against the flu (also called influenza) through safe and effective flu shots, according to Stanley Shapiro, MD, Kaiser Permanente Southern California infectious diseases specialist and co-chairman of the Regional Adult Immunization Taskforce.

The flu vaccine, Shapiro said, is another important form of insurance.

“You want to protect your home and car from harm, so why not protect your family’s health with simple flu shots?” Shapiro said. (Flu vaccines, by the way, don’t give you the case of the flu. That’s a myth, Shapiro said.)

Flu season, which doesn’t have a fixed beginning and end, will most likely begin in late November, according to Shapiro. Flu season tends to taper off in January, he said. In years past, however, Shapiro said he’s seen the season go into March.

Last year, hospitals and other flu shot providers suffered a shortage of vaccines.

“There were also quality control issues last year that took Chiron’s entire production out of circulation,” Shapiro said. “That’s not an issue this year.”

This year, as many as 97 million influenza shots were made available in the American market last month for the upcoming flu season, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Shapiro advises everyone to get a flu vaccine. Flu shots, however, are most important for:

1. People who are 65 or older

2. Nursing home patients

3. People over 6 months old with health problems, like asthma, or with long-term diseases, like HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), chronic kidney disease, diabetes or heart disease

4. Children or teenagers who must often take aspirin

5. People who are often around the elderly or around those with health problems

6. Children 6 to 23 months old

7. Children with chronic diseases

Some people might not be able to get a flu shot. Experts suggest that you talk to your doctor if you have certain allergies, especially to eggs; if you have an illness, like pneumonia; if you have a high fever; or if you’re pregnant.

The CDC estimates that flu afflicts 10 to 20 percent of Americans each flu season. Most people recover, but each year, the flu and its complications kill about 36,000 Americans and put 200,000 in the hospital.

The flu virus constantly changes; therefore, the flu vaccine formula is changed every year and people must get immunization each year.

Vaccines are chosen based on a scientific process, according to Shapiro. “The World Health Organization keeps track of virus combinations throughout the world and they attempt to track the change in the strains over time and make the recommendations to the manufacturers on the basis of their epidemiologic data,” he said. “There are three different components to a vaccine. There are three different strains that a vaccine covers.”

People’s immune systems take time to respond to the flu vaccine, according to sources. Therefore, Shapiro suggests that people get vaccinated six to eight weeks before flu season starts to prevent getting infected or to reduce the severity of flu if you do get it.

If you get the flu, you most likely won’t get it again in the same flu season, according to Shapiro. “I think the problem is that ‘flu’ has become such a generic term that people use it to describe all kinds of illnesses that are not really influenza-like illnesses,” he said. “You might have a case of influenza and then get a respiratory infection a couple of weeks later, which would be completely different.”

With regard to the deadly bird flu, Shapiro doesn’t think the Avian Flu has shown enough evidence to be called the pandemic that many people have labeled it.

“This virus is disturbing, but it . . . hasn’t really been shown to have aggressive human-to-human transmission,” Shapiro said. “At this point, it’s really an oddity that humans have gotten it. Almost all the humans who’ve gotten it have had intense contact with diseased poultry. That’s not a pandemic situation.”