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Every year, at the time of the influenza season, myths and misconceptions about the flu vaccine are emerging.
Some people avoid being vaccinated because they do not think it works well enough to make it worthwhile. Some people think that they are too healthy to need it. And some fear it makes them sick, perhaps remembering when they were touched and became ill soon after.
"That's what the taxi driver and the grocer always tell me:" The flu vaccine will give me the flu, "says Mark Thompson, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "It's a persistent myth."
Despite years of consistent messages from health care providers about the dangers of influenza and the protective (and safe) power of the influenza vaccine, many people still have false beliefs about both. One reason is that flu, technically known as influenza, encompasses a complex and ever-changing group of viruses, says William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical School in Nashville.
Some strains cause relatively benign diseases similar to cold. Others cause global pandemics. (And many respiratory viruses – even the most dangerous ones and others that occur soon after receiving an influenza vaccine – have no flu at all.)
Influenza viruses also mutate constantly and without warning, which means that people's experiences do not apply from one year to the next. "As we say in the case of influenza," If you've seen an influenza season, you've already seen an influenza season, "Schaffner said." It's like fighting a new fight every year. "
Some years are less successful than others, despite the constant vigilance of a global surveillance network that works all year to isolate and analyze influenza strains in circulation. In the months following the experts' decision to select the strains for inclusion in the annual influenza vaccine, viruses can mutate and new strains can appear, making the vaccine less effective than expected.
This is what happened last year, when the influenza vaccine was effective at about 40%, but only at 25% effective against H3N2, a particularly virulent strain. The result was a record number of hospitalizations and child deaths.
Some experts fear that these efficiency figures will cause unnecessary confusion and mistrust of the vaccine. According to the CDC, people who get vaccinated are 40 to 60 percent less likely to visit the doctor in case of influenza infection in years where the chances are equal. This may not seem like much if people expect the flu vaccine to be comparable to measles or polio.
But a 40% effective vaccine has a 40% chance of completely preventing infection, says Schaffner, adding to millions of people protected from serious illness and hundreds of thousands from being excluded from hospitals. And complete protection is not the only useful measure.
Even when people get the flu, new research shows they would be better off if they were vaccinated against the flu. In a 2018 study, Thompson and colleagues analyzed data from more than 3,000 patients admitted to two hospitals in New Zealand between 2012 and 2015. Of the influenza patients, those who had been vaccinated had 59% less chances of being admitted to the intensive care unit. . And even if they were at the ICU, the vaccinated patients spent an average of four days less in the hospital.
"As you move more and more into the continuum of gravity, this study suggests that the vaccine continues to provide protection," Thompson said. "It gives us extra ammunition to talk about people's worries."
Other recent studies have shown that:
● Adults are five times more likely to die of influenza if they are not immunized.
● Children are half as likely to die of influenza if they are vaccinated.
● Pregnant women are less likely to be hospitalized if they get the flu shot, which also protects their newborns.
The influenza vaccine also appears to protect people from persistent complications of the flu, such as heart attacks and strokes, which become more likely during a period of inflammation that may follow an initial infection, Schaffner says. And the vaccine remains particularly important for frail elderly people or at the threshold of frailty. For them, the flu can be the first domino of a series of adverse health consequences.
So far, this year's influenza season has started slowly and seems fairly conventional, with sporadic cases and small outbreaks beginning to appear throughout the country. The H1N1 strain is circulating and, for now, the vaccine seems to be well matched, said Gregory Poland, director of the vaccine research group at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
But cases tend to peak in February and much remains to be done. This is a lesson that Poland learned in the winter of 2000 when it was part of the committee that decided which strains to include in the vaccine. That year, the flu season began to be tamed. Then, in early November, a new variant appeared in the United States and quickly spread, resulting in a particularly bad flu season.
According to Poland, hundreds of millions of new influenza mutants are forming every few minutes. "People tend to think that flu is a static virus, but it's an incestuous cesspool of viruses," he says. "Prediction is impossible."
Studies consistently show that the most effective motivator is an insistent recommendation from a health care provider. But less than half of Americans were vaccinated against influenza last year.
To avoid the annual battle, some scientists are working on a universal vaccine that would cover all strains. Others are trying to make the influenza vaccine easier to administer using patches or other methods that do not require needles.
At the moment, there are nine options, says Poland, including a version for the elderly, a newly re-approved nasal fog, a vaccine made from cells instead of eggs, and another that can be administered by injection, a high pressure jet. of liquid. Poland recommends that people discuss with their health care providers what is best for them.
Regarding the concern that the flu vaccine may give you, Grider reassures you.
"It's a vaccine containing a killed virus," he says. "It's literally impossible for him to give you the flu."
Read more
The decline in the number of influenza vaccines in adults may be a factor in last season's record deaths, illnesses and deaths.
The flu can be a killer, but some refuse to be vaccinated
Here's what you need to know about the flu season
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