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Nancy Kendall, a registered nurse, gives a flu shot to Kenna Burt, a radiology technologist, at Lowell General Hospital on Tuesday. The hospital is vaccinating 3,600 of its employees. (SUN / JULIA MALAKIA)
and Peter Jasinski
The flu season has begun and with it, a reminder from the local health authorities on the best way to protect yourself.
"I can not stress enough about getting the flu shot," said Dr. Roxanne Latimer, medical director of Circle Health Urgent Care at Lowell General Hospital. "It helps to protect the individual.It's possible that the strains do not match 100 %.It's always a risk, but you get some protection.The influenza vaccine has very little inconvenience, but inconvenience of getting the flu ".
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, influenza vaccination is the best way to prevent influenza and its potentially serious complications. Getting a vaccine can help prevent millions of influenza cases, doctor visits and tens of thousands of hospitalizations.
According to the CDC, the flu season 2017-2018 was bad in terms of severity. In most areas, widespread influenza activity has weighed heavily on medical facilities – outpatient clinics and hospital emergency rooms.
As of September 29, 181 pediatric deaths have been reported to the CDC and approximately 80% of these deaths occurred in children who did not receive influenza vaccine this season. A total of 80,000 deaths from influenza and its complications were reported last season.
The overall effectiveness of influenza vaccine 2017-2018 against influenza A and B is estimated at 40%.
"Viruses can change whenever they go through a person, which is why some years, you see it changing in such a way that there is no match." 100%, "said Latimer. "In the flu vaccine, we try to maximize the types that protect you – there is influenza A, influenza B, different types of viruses."
Lowell General Hospital spokesman Will Courtney said the hospital is vaccinating 3,600 of its employees. "If our staff can avoid the flu, they can also avoid passing it on, especially to patients or the elderly who may be more vulnerable," he wrote in an email.
As October is still pretty early in the influenza season, Christopher Knuth, Leominster's director of health, said the severity of this year's virus was not yet known. Despite the uncertainty, he has always urged residents to exercise caution and be vaccinated early.
"We usually try to post something on this via Facebook and our website, which DPH has been warning us for years, but it has not happened yet," he said. he declares. "We are still at the very beginning, we will hear about outbreaks in other parts of the country before it happens here, but I have not heard anything until I get there. present. "
In describing how difficult it can be to track the severity of an influenza season, Dr. Larry Madoff, director of the Epidemiology and Immunization Division of the Department of Public Health, said that an elder of his colleagues would check if there was suddenly more death notice in the newspaper.
"The number is clearly increasing during the flu season," he said.
Madoff said the season last year was one of the worst that the state has seen in nearly a decade. However, DPH does not have an exact number of people infected or killed by the virus, many people with the flu never asking for medical treatment.
According to the CDC's national figures, Madoff estimates that last season could have been responsible for about 1,600 deaths in Massachusetts.
Nancy Kendall, a registered nurse at Lowell General Hospital, gives a flu vaccine to Caitlin Holden, a pharmacy buyer at LGH Hospital, on Tuesday. If our staff can avoid the flu, it can also avoid passing it on, especially to patients or seniors who might be more vulnerable, said hospital spokesman Will Courtney. (SUN / JULIA MALAKIA)
Given the uncertainties about influenza strains that will hit the region and people's immunity, Madoff explained that it was difficult to predict what this flu season would bring.
"We have a saying that if you have seen an influenza season, you have seen an influenza season," he said. "Every year, our vaccines are adjusted to make them more compatible with what should flow, but we do not really know it in advance."
Last week, Madoff said his division was aware of 50 confirmed cases of influenza in the state, which he said was typical of this time of year.
Colleen DaSilva, Public Health Nurse with the Lowell City Department of Health, said the department had already organized two large influenza vaccination clinics for city employees and retirees. She estimated that about 250 people had been vaccinated in these clinics. DaSilva said the department planned a number of influenza clinics in the near future for under-served populations, which could hinder the flu vaccine.
Follow Amaris Castillo on Twitter @AmarisCastillo.
Follow Peter Jasinski on Twitter @ PeterJasinski53.
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