What ’s new with the flu shot?

Should you get the influenza (flu) vaccine this year? The short, quick answer (barring any medical reasons you shouldn’t, such as severe allergies), is yes! But recent research raises another important question: When should you get the shot? Why a flu shot every year in the first place? Getting infected with the flu can be dangerous — we’ve seen patients in the ICU who were previously healthy but had a horrible response to a strain of the virus and became very sick. Every year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other agencies release flu vaccination guidelines in late summer to early fall. The flu vaccines are usually available by the end of the summer season. Figuring out exactly which strains of flu viruses the vaccine should protect against is often complicated. Basically, experts look at the influenza virus strains that were making trouble in previous years, and attempt to predict which strains are likely to cause the flu in the upcoming season. The inactivated flu vaccine is the form of flu vaccine that is most commonly injected and contains parts of the virus but no live virus. Therefore, you should not be infected with the flu from the vaccine itself. Some people may feel “sick” after the vaccine with symptoms such as mild fever, pain in the injection site, fatigue — all of which may just be your body mounting an expected immune response against the foreign virus particles. For the 2017-18 season, the CDC and Advisory Committee on Immu...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Cold and Flu Health Infectious diseases Prevention Vaccines Source Type: blogs