Issue Date: October 7, 2007
It's flu season. Don't let myths keep you from getting the vaccination.
This time every year, I talk to my patients about the cold and influenza season -- and the need for a flu shot. With most patients, the discussion is short. I remind them that flu season is just around the corner and that having the vaccination improves the odds of staying healthy.
But for others, more explanation is needed to put them at ease about getting immunized. Occasionally, their reluctance is based on adverse experiences with the vaccination in the past. That's understandable. However, some people who resist getting immunized make up their minds based on myths about the flu and the flu shot. Itis important to separate fact from fiction.
Flu facts
1. Each year, 30,000 to 35,000 Americans die from the flu and its complications.
2. Because the flu is caused by a virus, anyone can get it.
3. Kids under 5, adults over 50 and people with chronic medical conditions, such as asthma, chronic bronchitis or heart disease, are at high risk for complications.
4. Being immunized by a flu shot or the inhaled FluMist (FDA-approved only for healthy people ages 2* to 49) significantly reduces the risk of getting the flu.
5. Most folks who get the flu shot have no reaction. Up to 25% may have some redness and slight swelling at the site. A small percentage may experience a slight fever, chills and headache within 24 hours. These symptoms end within a few days.
6. The flu virus mutates from year to year, so a vaccination from last season is ineffective against this year's strains.
A flu shot can't give you the flu, but getting the shot can help keep the flu from spreading.
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Flu fiction
1. Flu is just a bad cold. Hardly. Although it's considered a respiratory infection, it affects the entire body, causing high fever (up to 104 F) that's accompanied by body aches, headaches, nausea and dehydration. Even after the infection is gone (it can last up to two weeks), people can be weak for several more days.
2. You can get the flu from the flu shot. No, you can't. The vaccine is not made from a live virus.
3. You can get the flu from wet hair or cold weather. No, you get the flu by coming into contact with someone who is infected. In the cold of winter, when people cluster indoors, exposure to the flu virus is more likely, but cold weather itself doesn't cause the flu.
4. The flu shot is only for high-risk people. False. People at high risk definitely need the vaccination, but those at low risk also should get the shot to help keep the flu from spreading.
5. If I haven't had the flu by December, I'm in the clear. Flu season can extend through May. Although it's never too late in the season to get the shot, the ideal period for immunization is from mid-October to mid-November.
* On September 19, 2007, after this column went to press, the FDA announced that it had approved expanding the population for use of the nasal influenza vaccine FluMist to include children between the ages of 2 and 5.
Contributing Editor Tedd Mitchell, M.D., president and medical director of Dallas' Cooper Clinic, writes HealthSmart every week.
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