Flu season had early start; vaccination still a smart move

With winter coming on strong, flu vaccines are still available and a good idea to prevent sickness, said Sidney Regional Medical Center PA-C Mitch Muhs.

“Normally in this part of the world we often times don’t see a lot of influenza until January or February and then on into March and April,” Muhs said. “This year we started seeing influenza in October.”

“Influenza gets a lot of press every year because it kills a lot of people. People think it’s just whatever and you take cold medicine and it goes away, it’s more than that. It’s more than a cold,” Muhs said.

Muhs said that one of the biggest misconceptions that the public has about influenza is that the respiratory flu is the same as the stomach flu. The flu shot is for respiratory flu illnesses that include headaches, cough, fever and body aches, he said.

“It’s totally different than the stomach flu where you feel like crap for three days, drink your 7-Up, get better and go back to work,” he said.

According to information from the World Health Organization, “Seasonal influenza is an acute viral infection caused by an influenza virus which spreads easily and can sweep through schools, nursing homes or businesses and towns.”

Symptoms of influenza include fever, dry coughs, headaches, body aches, and occasionally nasal congestion and a sore throat, though those aren’t classic symptoms, Muhs said.

Flu shots are given out at most doctor’s officers, many pharmacies and at public immunization clinics.

Muhs said that he still highly recommends that people get flu shots because this could be a long flu season.

“People have been hearing about influenza for six weeks or so but it’s still very pertinent to get one now because we can have influenza into April,” he said.

According to information from the World Health Organization the most affective way to prevent influenza and its complications is to get vaccinated.

“Safe and effective vaccines have been available and used for more than 60 years,” researchers at the organization said. “Among healthy adults, influenza vaccine can prevent 70 percent to 90 percent of influenza-specific illness. Among the elderly, the vaccine reduces severe illnesses and complications by up to 60 percent, and deaths by 80 percent.”

“Millions of people in the United States — about 10 percent to 20 percent of U.S. residents — will get the flu each year,” according to information from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

In the United States about 36,000 people die per year from the flu, and approximately 114,000 per year are admitted to the hospital due to the flu, department researchers said.

The World Health Organization researchers said that influenza epidemics result in approximately five million severe illness cases and 250,000 to 500,000 deaths worldwide each year.

“In the spring the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) tries to predict what type of influenza is going to cause seasonal flu in the United States and that’ s what they base their flu vaccine on,” Muhs said. “If they guess right great, but some years we see that the vaccine has not been terribly effective.”

Though there is a chance each year that the vaccine will be less affective, Muhs said he doesn’t believe this is one of those years.

“I haven’t seen a single patient who got the flu vaccine and still got influenza,” he said. Muhs also said however that the shot is not a “cut-and-dry deal”, meaning that just because a person receives a shot does not mean that they are 100 percent guaranteed that they won’t get sick.

Usually only one basic type of flu vaccine is given out, Muhs said. However, if a supplemental dangerous type breaks out in the fall a second vaccine might be administered to battle the flu the doctors didn’t see coming, he said.

Flu vaccines are usually given by injection but there is also a nasal spray vaccine for those afraid of needle pricks.

Muhs said that another big misconception about flu vaccines is that when someone gets vaccinated and then gets flu-like symptoms they automatically think they got the flu from the shot.

It’s not because the shot is useless, but instead it’s because in the shot is some of the live virus. You can get an immune reaction to the shot resulting in low-grade fever and body aches, he said.

“But you cannot get influenza from the flu vaccines, it’s scientifically impossible,” Muhs said.

Complications that can result from not getting treatment right away for influenza can be secondary respiratory infections such as pneumonia. Kids can also develop ear infections. The worst possible outcome however is death, he said.

According to information from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services anyone at any age can get influenza and acquire serious problems from it. People older than 65, people with chronic medical conditions and young children are most at risk for complications.

“Most people don’t get pneumonia after influenza or the other things though. Most get it resolved and feel better within five to ten days,” Muhs said.

Influenza can be spread by coming into contact with an infected person, or from an infected person coughing and therefore exposing people to the virus via the air, according to researchers at the World Health Organization.

Muhs said that ways to avoid the flu are as simple as washing your hands and staying home once you feel symptoms coming on.

“If your temp is higher than 100 and you have body aches and a cough don’t go to work, don’t go to Cabela’s, don’t go to Walmart. Don’t spread it,” he said.

Muhs said that it’s beneficial to seek treatment early.

“We have medicine that can shorten the duration and decrease the severity of the illness if people are treated within the first two to three days of the onset of symptoms,” Muhs said.