Flu season is coming, vaccination season begins

Flu season is coming, vaccination season begins

09/24/2014

Last winter, the flu season unusually weak, the coming could be stronger again. For this reason, experts are now recommending people from risk groups to take influenza vaccines again. The vaccine needs to be renewed annually, as the protection is likely to last only one season.

Joint call for vaccination
The flu season last winter was unusually weak, the coming could be stronger again. Therefore, experts advise from now on again to the flu vaccine. Especially elderly people over 60, pregnant women, people with underlying diseases such as diabetes or asthma and medical staff should get vaccinated. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the Paul Ehrlich Institute and the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) jointly called for this on Tuesday (23 September). Even patients with chronic conditions such as cardiovascular diseases are at greater risk.

Vaccination with side effects
It was said that the vaccination rate was too low in all these risk groups. „Immune defenses are less active during pregnancy, making pregnant women more susceptible to infections and increasing the risk of severe flu“, BZgA Director Elisabeth Pott said. But there are also critics who point out that in the flu vaccine pros and cons are good against each other. Thus, it should be noted that a vaccine can cause side effects such as redness and swelling of the puncture site, fatigue, muscle or limb pain, nausea and shivering. In some cases, there is also a general malaise with headache, fever and loss of appetite. As a rule, however, such vaccination reactions disappear again after one to three days.

Past flu outbreak was moderate
Who decides to get a vaccination should be best in October or November, as experts recommend. It takes about ten to forty-four days for vaccine protection to last for six to ten months. The flu season usually begins after the turn of the year, but first cases can occur earlier. The flu epidemic 2013/2014 was moderate. The number of around 780,000 flu-related doctor visits was „historically low“, as the RKI announced. However, there have been two-year fluctuations in influenza wave strength over the past few years. So it came in the strong season of winter before ten times as many visits to the doctor. How strong the coming season will be and how long it lasts can not be predicted.

Vaccination does not provide 100% protection
The seasonal vaccine is always composed of components of the currently circulating virus types worldwide. This year it is identical to the previous year. It was emphasized that even those who had already done so in the previous year should be vaccinated again, since the protection probably lasts only one season. It is also important to know that vaccination does not provide 100% protection against the flu. Staying fit through a healthy lifestyle and strengthening the immune system should not be neglected. For children and adolescents between the ages of two and 17 years, a so-called live vaccine is available, which is not injected as usual, but administered as a nasal spray. However, the vaccine is recommended only for chronically ill children. The costs for the vaccination are taken over by many health insurance companies, at least for people from the risk groups. (Ad)