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"IT'S FLU SHOT SEASON - AGAIN!!"
Getting your children the flu vaccine is the single most important thing you can do to keep them healthy this winter. Call your pediatrician now to schedule a flu vaccine appointment.
Flu season runs from October until April, most cases are seen in the winter months. The peak of influenza disease in the Northeast is typically in February, but cases will linger into early spring. It is ideal to get your flu shot early in flu season!
Why should you get the flu vaccine? Influenza, or "the flu", affects between 5 - 20% of our population. It is responsible for 200,000 hospital admissions and 36,000 deaths each year. In 2010, 115 children died from influenza-associated disease. Most of the children who died were under five years of age and half of them were normal healthy children before they got the flu. Influenza is the most common vaccine preventable illness!
What Causes Flu? Influenza is a respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. There are two main types of virus: influenza A and influenza B. Each type includes many different strains, which tend to change each year. This is why flu shots must be given every year. The 2011-2012 flu vaccine will protect against the three influenza viruses that research indicates will be most common during the season. This includes an influenza A (H1N1) virus, an influenza A (H3N2) virus, and an influenza B virus.
How is flu transmitted? Influenza is extremely contagious and is easily transmitted through contact with droplets from the nose and throat of an infected person during coughing and sneezing.These viruses may also be spread when a person touches these droplets on another person or an object and then touches their own mouth or nose (or someone else's mouth or nose) before washing their hands.
If you have ever had "the flu" you know it is no fun. Symptoms may include high fever, body aches, headache, dry cough, sore throat and extreme fatigue. Stomach symptoms like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea can occur and are much more common in children than in adults.
Who should receive a flu shot?
Current recommendations are:
- Children with chronic illnesses, asthma, diabetes, heart
disease, cancer, cerebral palsy, immune problems & their family
- All children 6 months - 18 years
- All family members of a baby age 0-24 months - Children with an immunosupressed family member (ie. someone on chemo.) - Children with elderly grandparents/great grandparents
- Children with history of pneumonia or multiple ear infections - Pregnant women in the 2nd or 3rd trimester during flu season - Adults over the age of 50 years, especially those over 65.
- Healthy children and adults who do - Residents of nursing homes and chronic-care facilities
If you have questions about flu or flu vaccine, call your pediatrician for more information.
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