Nov. 22, 2006
Not Too Late For Flu Shots
Flu Season Could Last Until May So Getting Shots Later Might Be Better, Doctors Say
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Nita Shockey, right, an instructor at Vatterot College in Oklahoma City, gives a flu shot to Gene Kordis, left, of Oklahoma City, during a mass flu immunization exercise in which people could obtain drive-thru flu shots, in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006. (AP Photo)
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Interactive Fighting The Flu Health and vaccine information, photos and outbreak history
"A child under 6 months old is vulnerable to influenza, but is not eligible for vaccination," Bernstein tells WebMD. "So in all households with a child under 6 months, all siblings, and parents, and grandparents, and caretakers should get immunized to protect that child."
Bernstein also advises flu shots for older kids — not so much to protect them as to protect older adults they're likely to infect if they get the flu.
The bottom line: Just about everyone should get a flu shot; or a flu sniff, since there's now a nasal flu vaccine for healthy people over age 5 and under age 60 who are not pregnant.
"There is no question that the flu vaccine is the best way to go for preventing influenza," Bernstein says. "Everyone should get it -- and should encourage their friends and family to get it as well."
Page Break
Common Flu Vaccine Myths
Why don't more people get flu shots?
Last September, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases sponsored a survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,014 American adults.
The poll found that:
Such statistics worry the CDC's Santoli.
She admits that some years the flu vaccine — which has to be made a year in advance — doesn't perfectly match the flu strains circulating that year. But most years, the vaccine is right on target, she says.
"For healthy adults under 65, the vaccine is 70 percent to 90 percent effective in preventing flu when there is a good match," Santoli says. "Over age 65, the efficacy is somewhat less. That's one reason why it's important for their children and grandchildren to get vaccinated."
Santoli has a theory about why so many people think they got the flu from flu vaccine — even though that is medically impossible.
"There are lots of viruses that circulate in the winter — and they cause similar symptoms to flu, although usually not as severe," she says.
"Or maybe you get the flu during the two weeks it takes for the vaccine to take effect. So if you get another kind of virus or the flu in the days just before or the days just after vaccination, you can get the flu despite being vaccinated, not because of it,” she explains.
Get It While It's Hot
Santoli and Bernstein urge everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible — but if not now, in December, in January, in February, or as long as supplies last. With 77 million of a record 115 million doses already out there, in a nation of 300 million there are still more people who need flu vaccine than available vaccine doses.
So if you won't do yourself a favor, do it for your family, your friends, your co-workers, and your fellow citizens.
Get the flu vaccine as soon as you can. The possibility of a sore arm and low, short-lived fever are the main risks. The benefit? It's very likely you could save someone else's life.
SOURCES: News releases: National Influenza Vaccine Summit, CDC, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, American Lung Association, American Medical Association, American Public Health Association, and the National Association of County & City Health Officials. CDC web site. NFID web site. AAP web site. AMA web site. Jeanne Santoli, M.D., deputy director, immunization services division, CDC. Henry Bernstein, M.D., spokesman and member of committee on infectious diseases, American Academy of Pediatrics; professor of pediatrics, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, N.H.
By Daniel J. DeNoon. Reviewed by Louise Chang, M.D.
© 2006, WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.
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