The truth about flu shots | Health

It does not matter how fit and healthy I am, once I cross an airport, I sniff.

However, you do not even need to travel to be exposed to the flu. With the increasing ease of traveling, the flu comes to you. From time to time, a major strain of the flu occurs, leaving a trail of death and illness in its path. Nearly a hundred years ago, the Spanish flu killed more than 50 million people, 20 times more than the Jamaican population.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that the Asian flu of the 1950s had killed about two million people worldwide. In 2009 alone, a new flu strain infected at least 10 million people and more than 100,000 people died. Fortunately, deadly strains such as these occur only twice a year. They occur when strains of influenza affecting animals such as pigs and ducks cross over with strains of human flu.

SEASONAL FLU

What is more common is seasonal flu. The flu can cause fever and sore throats. Unlike colds where you runny nose and cough, but you can continue to follow your normal activities, the flu makes you feel very bad.

Influenza can cause headaches, muscle aches, joint pain, and you feel tired, weak and hungry. Really serious cases not only affect the lining of your trachea or respiratory tract, but the virus can penetrate deeply into your lung tissue, ignite and soften it with fluid and pus, and interfere with your breathing. Influenza can also enter the brain. The flu can be deadly.

Everyone can get the flu, but people with weakened immune systems or medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes or "sugar" and kidney disease can get the flu more easily and have more serious complications .

Fortunately, there are ways to protect ourselves from seasonal flu. Washing your hands often and covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze effectively reduces the spread of the flu.

INFLUENZA VACCINE DOES NOT GIVE YOU FLU

We have a flu shot. The influenza vaccine actually contains a very small amount of the inactivated influenza virus. We grow the virus in chicken eggs. The chicken egg is like a mini-farm for cute little viruses.

Interesting fact: It takes about two eggs to produce enough virus for one dose of vaccine. Most importantly, if you are allergic to eggs, you should tell your doctor.

And the flu vaccine does NOT give you the flu. In the manufacturing process, once the viruses are developed in the chicken eggs and harvested, they are shredded into small pieces.

We are interested in the envelope shield that covers viruses because it has a few small spikes. The virus uses these tips to attach to the lining of your airways and cause disease. Because the peaks are visible, when the flu virus tries to get into your body, they are the first things your immune system sees.

It is these small tips that are the key ingredient of the vaccine because it causes your immune system to easily recognize and protect itself from the flu virus.

We are interested in the envelope shield that covers viruses because it has a few small spikes. The virus uses these tips to attach to the lining of your airways and cause disease.

Of course, we can have reactions to many other drugs and even non-drug products like make-up or certain foods like shellfish or peanuts, etc. Some people may be sensitive or allergic to certain components of the vaccine, such as chicken egg antibiotics and germ-free manufacturing processes. Tiny traces can enter the vaccine. Other reactions include redness at the injection site. Some people may even have a mild fever, and this shows that this vaccine works and that your body recognizes it and learns how to organize a fight for the next time that he will see a real flu virus.

REAL CONVERSATION

And yes, the influenza vaccine may contain traces of formaldehyde, an organic substance used to inactivate or kill the influenza virus, so it does not harm you when it is used to make vaccines.

But did you know that your body naturally produces formaldehyde? That done. Even in newborns. Our body naturally produces formaldehyde when it makes amino acids – the building blocks of the proteins that make up your muscles, for example.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stated that the amount of formaldehyde contained in one dose of vaccine does not even reach 1% of the total amount of formaldehyde found naturally in newborns. As you get older, your body naturally produces even more formaldehyde. It is also found in other vaccines, such as the vaccines you received to protect you from polio and lockjaw.

There is a trace amount of mercury in bulk influenza vaccines (multiple doses of a larger vial), but not in single-dose vaccines in pre-filled syringes that I like to use, for example. Exposure to mercury, for example in the soil or in some old paintings of some buildings, can have a negative effect on your health. And as patients read this information on the Internet, it is important that they hear what health care providers are saying.

Mercury can accumulate in the fish we eat or in the environment. In fact, in a scientific study published in the neurotoxicity Research Journal, measuring mercury levels in the blood of Jamaican children, it seems that we have much more to worry about mercury levels in seafood, including sardines, mackerel and salt fish.

Fortunately, it is a different type of mercury that is used as a preservative in some vaccines, and the body easily removes it.

WHY DO I NEED INFLUENZA EVERY YEAR?

Remember those little spikes on the surface of the flu virus? Because these are the first parts of the virus that your immune system will see, the flu has the means to change these peaks. These changes mean that your body sees this version of the virus for the first time and would not have had the opportunity to protect itself against this virus if you had not received a vaccine before.

Throughout the year, WHO collects samples from around the world to monitor new strains of the influenza virus. The WHO uses this information to determine which influenza strains to include in the vaccine. A new influenza vaccine is available every year to protect you against new strains.

Because we are used to the idea of ​​receiving one or two vaccines against other diseases once or more while growing up, the idea of ​​requiring the same vaccine every year surprises some people. But there is a good reason behind that. Scientists are currently working on developing a "universal vaccine" based on another part of the virus other than advanced viruses, so that a vaccine can protect you for years.

WHY CAN I ALWAYS GET INFLUENZA IF THE VACCINE IS OBTAINED?

This is a very common question. Our idea of ​​a vaccine is that you get it by growing up and you just do not have polio, or a lockjaw. But even after receiving the flu shot, you can still catch the flu. However, a person who has been given the flu shot usually has less severe symptoms and is recovering faster than someone who has not received the influenza vaccine.

The flu vaccine halves the risk of hospitalization! And if you need to be admitted to a hospital because of flu, you will be much less likely to have to be under a fan or a respirator.

There is a lot of misinformation about vaccines in general, but perhaps especially about the flu vaccine. With the ease of travel nowadays, a really terrible flu from anywhere in the world could reach our shores.

The flu is of particular concern because we have seen its devastating effects. I hope we will develop a culture of awareness and preparation, and receiving your flu shot every year is a good start.

Dr. Yohann White, MBBS, PhD, DTMH, is Medical Director at Para Caribe Consulting Medical Doctors. Send an e-mail to [email protected] and [email protected].