I understand that there is a flu vaccine, but I don’t understand why people need to be vaccinated against the flu.
Influenza, commonly known as “the flu” is a serious disease which may lead to a hospital stay and it may even lead to death in certain victims. Each and every flu season is different, and influenza infection can affect populations in hugely different ways. It is quite possible for healthy people to get very sick from one strain of flu and spread it to all of their friends and family. Over a period of thirty-one years, as few as 3,000 people died from influenza related symptoms in a given year and the numbers have been known to rocket as high as 49,000 deaths in a single season. Nearly ninety-percent of all deaths from the flu occur in people who are sixty-five years of age and older.
From roughly mid-October through late May, flu viruses are found circulating in the population. An annual flu shot or nasal-spray vaccine is the best way to reduce the chances that you or a family member will get the flu and pass it along to a friend or family member. When people get vaccinated against influenza, there is less of a chance for flu to burn through the community.
I get that the flu vaccine will make it less likely for me to get the flu, but I don’t get how it does its job.
The flu vaccine causes antibodies to build in the body about two weeks after the vaccination date. The antibodies provide protection from infection with the viruses that are preset in the vaccine.
The flu vaccine protects against the influenza viruses that are expected to be the most common during the new flu season. Traditional vaccines are made to protect against three flu viruses. In addition, this year, there are vaccines designed to protect against four flu viruses. These vaccines protect against the same viruses as the traditional flu vaccine as well as an additional B virus.
The blogging team from http://www.drsmartphonemd.com is unable to make direct recommendations regarding the best flu vaccination, aside from stating that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We believe that readers should use our articles as the starting point in developing their own plan of action, moving forward to look at information on appropriate professional medical website. If a reader has specific questions or concerns, we do recommend reaching out to a physician as soon as possible.
