Winter time is flu time Who should vaccinate?

Autumn is the best time to get vaccinated against the flu. For which people are vaccinations recommended for whom necessary and who does not need them urgently?

Flu wave at the end of the year
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) confirms: Flu waves usually occur at the end of the year. November is the best time to get vaccinated because it takes up to two weeks for the body to build its own defense.

A flu is not a harmless cold. It can cost you your life. (Casther / fotolia.com)

How often do you need to get vaccinated?
Influenza viruses mutate and the type of pathogens is constantly changing. That's why you have to get vaccinated every year.

How dangerous are flu waves?
In contrast to a flu infection, flu are not harmless diseases, but can be dangerous epidemics that destroy entire peoples. Nine million people sought medical help in Germany in the winter of 2017/18 because of a flu infection. About 10,000 people die each year in Europe from influenza, and the flu epidemic in Germany in 2018 claimed numerous deaths .

Everybody has to get vaccinated?
The Standing Vaccination Commission does not consider it necessary to have a flu vaccine in healthy children and adults, since such an infection usually does not have any serious consequences for them.

Can anyone get vaccinated?
However, the Commission does not say that healthy people should not be vaccinated. Anyone who wants to can be protected by a vaccine, she was even for pregnant women without risk.

Expressly recommended
On the other hand, the physicians explicitly recommend flu vaccination in people who have to fear serious complications from influenza, such as pneumonia, heart attack or death. These are generally over 60 years due to their weaker immune system, pregnant women and the chronically ill.

Protect patients
The Vaccination Commission strongly recommends flu vaccination for people working in the health care system. Doctors, nurses, physiotherapists or paramedics are less concerned with self-protection than patient protection. There is a high risk of infecting patients who can hardly cope with the flu because of their basic illness.

Watching with fever
Those who have more than 38.5 degrees of fever or suffer from a serious infection, should not be vaccinated against influenza during this time. The weakened immune system will then not produce antibodies.

Too little vaccinations
According to the RKI, far too few people in Germany are vaccinated against influenza, only 35% in total, and only 40% even with employees of hospitals. The EU gives a vaccination coverage of 75% as a target for at-risk groups. Not only Germany, but also the rest of the EU are far away from it.

Flu vaccination against cold?
Some want to vaccinate against the flu, so that the annoying cold in the fall does not annoy. But the vaccine does not help against the cold. A flu-like infection like a cold are completely different diseases.

How good is the vaccine?
Influenza viruses are the metamorphosis viruses, they are constantly changing. But the vaccines are also adapted each year to the mutated pathogens. Although there is no complete protection, the risk of becoming infected drops drastically, and in the elderly by 50%.

When does the cashier pay??
The health insurance companies usually pay only for patients for whom the vaccination committee strongly recommends a flu vaccine. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)