Experts say the flu season could come early this year—are you protected?
By Chandra Harris-McCray

The aches and chills of influenza could leave you reaching for Theraflu well before January and February this year.

All the more reason experts say everyone should heed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s first-ever expanded recommendation that all men, women—including pregnant women—and children six months and older should get the flu vaccine.

This is a standard the Knox County Health Department has believed in and practiced for years.

“While the young and old are a vulnerable group, everyone is at risk, so everyone is encouraged to get vaccinated. The flu shot is your best defense against getting the flu,” says Dr. Martha Buchanan, Knox County Health Department Medical Director.

For six years, the Knox County Health Department has hosted on-site clinics at all public schools, most private schools, Head Starts and day cares in Knox County in an effort to slow the spread of the flu by building community-wide immunity.

“Children are known to be the major transmitter of the flu to other persons, including people who could be at high risk from complications, like their grandparents,” says Buchanan.

A national model for community flu prevention campaigns, the free in-school intranasal vaccinations of FluMist have proven to be a worthwhile endeavor that reaches more than 40 percent of school age children, surpassing the national rate of 20 percent.

Although the swine flu pandemic is over, Buchanan hopes the heightened awareness surrounding last year’s flu season sticks, so people remember to get their flu shot. “Last year, two times as many flu vaccinations were given in the history of flu vaccinations.”

This year’s vaccine is on its way to doctors’ offices and the health department. And there should be plenty of it to go around. The single vaccine will protect against three different flu viruses: an H3N2 virus, an influenza B virus and the H1N1 virus that caused illness last season.

While the vaccine helps ward off influenza, individual responsibility is stressed by Buchanan. “Wash your hands, cover your mouth when you sneeze, and stay home from work or school to avoid spreading the illness when you’re sick.”

“We must all work, as local pediatrician Dr. Lori Patterson puts it, ‘to build a cocoon of protection,’” she says.

Who Should Get Vaccinated
While everyone should get a flu vaccine, it’s especially important that the following groups get vaccinated either because they are at high risk of having serious flu-related complications or because they live with or care for people at high risk for developing flu-related complications:
-Pregnant women
-Children younger than 5, but especially children younger than 2 years old
-People 50 years of age and older
-People of any age with certain chronic medical conditions
-People who live in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities
-People who live with or care for those at high risk for complications from flu, including health care workers; household contacts of persons at high risk for complications from the flu; household contacts and out of home caregivers of children less than 6 months of age (these children are too young to be vaccinated)

Who Should Not Be Vaccinated
-People who have a severe allergy to chicken eggs
-People who have had a severe reaction to an influenza vaccination
-People who developed Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) within 6 weeks of getting an influenza vaccine
-Children less than 6 months of age (influenza vaccine is not approved for this age group)
-People who have a moderate-to-severe illness with a fever (they should wait until they recover to get vaccinated)

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention