What are the recommendations for a flu shot this year?

The flu unlike the common cold can make anyone sick. You are liable to miss work for a week and feel like crap. Other symptoms of flu include a sore throat, severe body aches, fever and cough. In some people, these symptoms may last at least 5-10 days. Therefore, this year, it is highly recommended that everyone get the flu vaccine. 

This year’s new vaccine will include the H1N1 strain and the latest strains of flu viruses in circulation. For those people who hate needles there is the option of the nasal mist. However, the nasal mist works best in children and does not provide the same degree of immunity in adults. Moreover the nasal mist is also many time more expensive than the flu shot. 

Therefore, for $10-$15, you can now get a flu shot, that might hurt a little, but will most likely you save you many days of illness.  Most insurance companies will cover the cost, or have relatively low co-pay ($5-$15, depending on your policy). Medicare covers the flu-shot for retirees and geriatric patients, and the VA covers the cost for most veterans. A number of employers, including most major medical centers, offer the flu-shot for free to their employees.

Swine flu vaccine

The swine flu vaccine was recently developed to help protect the public against swine flu. There is pandemonium about the swine flu vaccine and everyone is rushing to get it. The question is does it work?

There are several brands of the swine flu vaccine on the market but by and large they all work in the same way- increase the body’s immunity to the virus
Up until now pregnant women, the elderly and young children were first offered the vaccine as they appeared to be at a higher risk for developing complications from the virus infection. This vaccine is not meant to be a replacement for the seasonal flu vaccine and some people may need both vaccines.

Some versions the flu vaccine have to be administered twice 2-3 weeks apart but now there is evidence that a single shot of the vaccine may be enough to boost immunity
Experts say that the swine flu vaccine can reduce an individual’s chance of acquiring swine flu by 50-70 percent. While most people do develop antibodies after the vaccine, there are still some people who do get infected by the virus.

Vaccination is not a guarantee that you will be 100 % protected from the virus.
So far the vaccine has been deemed to be safe and the only side effects are burning at the injection site and mild pain. So far no major side effects have been reported after the swine flu vaccine. A few deaths have been reported but it is not known if this was from the swine flu infection or a component of the vaccine.
Beside the local side effects at the site of injection, there have been reports of headaches, swollen glands, fever and joint pain. However, all these effects are temporary and resolve in a few days

Individual who are allergic to eggs should not get the swine flu vaccine. For these individuals there is another brand of the swine flu vaccine made without the use of eggs.

There was concern that the swine flu vaccine may be a cause of temporary paralysis but experts feel that this side effect may be directly related to the infection and not the vaccine.

How to prevent the common cold? Part 1

Now that winter is here, it is better to prevent the common cold and remain healthy. There a few things that one can do to prevent the flu. These include:

Get the flu vaccine. The ideal time to get vaccinated with the flu vaccine is early in November. It takes the body at least 2-3 weeks to build up immunity to the common cold virus. The flu epidemic usually starts in mid December and runs through to end of March. If you do miss an early flu shot one can always get a later flu vaccine as the flu season is quite long.

All consumers should understand that the flu vaccine is not 100 percent guarantee against the infection, but it can definitely reduce the intensity and duration of illness. The flu vaccine is about 70%-80% effective in warding off the common cold in healthy people. The vaccine is less reliable or effective in elderly individuals. Health experts recommend flu vaccinations for individuals over the age of 50 because the flu shot has been shown to reduce risk of flu related complications like emergency room visits and hospitalizations.