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Autumn has arrived, but another season is approaching, the flu season.
"We really seem to have reached the peak of the influenza season after the beginning of the year, until the middle of late February and March," said Dr. Michael Majetich, primary care family physician. from Lake Health SOM Center to Willoughby.
Majetich said northeastern Ohio was still in the start-up phase of the flu season. "But we are getting closer to his door."
At present, residents of the area have many opportunities to receive a flu shot. The region's health departments, health systems, medical clinics and pharmacies all offer vaccines.
Lake Health recently announced that its emergency / walk-in treatment centers and retail pharmacies would continue to offer the quadrivalent influenza vaccine, which covers four strains of the influenza virus. For more information about schedules and locations, call 440-953-6000 or 800-454-9800.
The Lake County General Health District also offers quadrivalent influenza vaccines, with high-dose injections for those 65 years of age and older, and standard dose injections for individuals aged 18 to 64 years. The district runs flu vaccination clinics at seniors' centers in Lake County. To make an appointment or find out more, call 440-350-2554.
Health care providers and administrators at the local and national levels hope that the 2018-2019 flu vaccine will help fight the actual influenza strains that appear more effectively than in 2017-2018.
About 80,000 Americans died of the flu and its complications last winter – the largest number of deaths from the disease in 40 years, reported the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in an Associated Press article.
In recent years, the number of flu-related deaths in the United States has ranged from 12,000 to 50,000 each winter, the CDC said.
The effectiveness of a newly developed flu vaccine varies because of the multiple strains of flu that spread each season, said the Food and Drug Administration in a Fortune magazine article.
Each vaccine is formulated to target three or four strains "most likely to circulate" each year, but determining which strains to include in the seasonal flu vaccine is not an exact science.
"One of the challenges of fighting the flu is that viruses can rapidly alter their genetic makeup – not only between flu seasons, but also during a season," said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Commissioner of the FDA, in a statement. "As a result, the seasonal flu vaccine should be evaluated annually to determine if its composition needs to be adjusted."
Among the reasons researchers believe that last season's flu season was so lethal is that the virus has mutated.
"We have clearly guessed the common strains that dominated last year's flu season," Gottlieb said. "It is now thought that the vaccine was not as protective, in part, because the influenza strain used to make the vaccine has undergone a very subtle mutation during the development process."
The FDA, the World Health Organization and the CDC review global data each year to determine which strains to include in the vaccine, a decision that must be made months before the next influenza season, Fortune magazine said . Strains for this year's influenza vaccine were collected in March.
Components of the 2018-19 quadrivalent flu vaccine include updated versions of strain A called H3N2 and strain B known as the Victoria line.
"Hopefully, these changes will make this season's flu vaccine slightly more potent than last season," said Carol Tackett, Lake County Health District Public Health Nurse.
For those who remain skeptical about the need for an annual flu shot, Tackett offers this advice.
"Any protection against the flu is better than nothing," she said.
Betty Wilson of Madison Township is someone who believes in the value of an annual flu shot.
"I have one every year and I have not had the flu since I can not tell you when," Wilson said after receiving the 2018-19 flu vaccine on Oct. 9 at the Madison Senior Center. Madison Village.
According to the CDC, it is recommended that all people over 6 months of age be vaccinated against influenza every year.
Vaccination is especially important for people at high risk for serious complications of influenza. This includes people 65 years and older, people of all ages who have certain chronic diseases – such as asthma, diabetes or heart disease – pregnant women and children under 5 years of age, but more especially less than 2 years old.
Although some people believe that influenza vaccine can get the flu, that's not true, said the CDC. There is no live virus of influenza in vaccines, and these vaccines can not cause the flu.
"It does not mean that you might not feel under time as your body accumulates and processes antibodies," Majetich said.
It takes about two weeks after the vaccination for antibodies to develop in the body and provide protection against infection with the flu virus, the CDC said.
As for the perfect time to get the flu shot, Tackett said the general rule was late October.
"So he will continue to protect throughout the influenza season," she said, adding that the vaccine would last six months.
In addition to being vaccinated every year, Mr. Tackett explained that regular hand washing, covering coughs and sneezes, and staying home after work or school when you're sick. are the other ways to prevent the flu.
Majetich endorses these same tips, but offers another suggestion that he considers important. He said the doctors had to work with the patients to help them achieve general well-being all year round.
"We like to see people stay well," he said.
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