This season’s flu vaccine will contain the strain of influenza virus that was predominant during last year’s worse-than-usual flu season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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Last year, there were record hospitalization rates among seniors and 145 flu-related deaths among children, although Frieden says the real number could actually be higher, because not all deaths may have been properly recorded as flu-related.
Although there’s reason to be optimistic that flu vaccines will offer more protection this year, the authors of the CDC report stressed that “it is not possible” to predict which flu strains will circulate most widely this fall and winter, nor how well the vaccine will fight against them.
Though the flu vaccine does not always work – in the past decade the effectiveness rate has ranged from 10 percent to 60 percent – health officials say immunization is the best defense against influenza, which can inflict cough and high fever and lead to potentially lethal complications.
As for the belief that the vaccine may actually make people sick, Thompson said it’s a myth.
Vaccines are made based on what strands of the flu scientists estimate will be most common.
“Our findings may help reframe the public image around flu vaccines, offering a positive context because getting vaccinated seems to help other people in the community”, he added.
When should you get a flu shot? Earlier this year, measles, a virus that had once been considered largely eradicated, spread to 188 people in 24 states and the District of Columbia in part because of false, outdated claims linking the MMR vaccine to autism. Still, kids think getting the flu vaccine is suffering. “A lot of people didn’t get the flu vaccine like we had advised and that really, I feel, contributed to the large numbers that we saw past year “.
The influenza surveillance efforts turned up three cases of flu caused by viral strains that had never before been seen in people.
“Get vaccinated”, CDC Director Thomas Frieden said at a press conference about the upcoming flu season.
Infectious Diseases Specialist Andrew Thompson from St. Luke’s said most years, the influenza vaccination is 50-70 percent effective. That meant that only about a third of the circulating viruses previous year were a match for the shots.
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Still, “flu is fickle”, said Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University and the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. The elderly are more susceptible to influenza than other populations and there’s a “high dose” version of this year’s vaccine that’s recommended for seniors. More than 500,000 adults ages 18 to 64 were questioned on how often they got flu-shots.
