Flu shot? You’ll be OK — maybe


(CNN) — So we got a influenza vaccine this season, and you’ve been reading about a influenza epidemic. You competence be wondering: Will a vaccine keep me healthy?

The answer: The vaccine isn’t a pledge that you’ll be flu-free. In fact, it’s about 62% effective, pronounced a executive of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Thomas Frieden, on Friday.

It can forestall a flu, and it can be profitable even if we do get sick, pronounced Dr. Bill Schaffner, authority of a surety medicine dialect during Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine.

“It’s a best vaccine we have, though there are cases of influenza that start notwithstanding immunization,” Schaffner pronounced on “CNN Newsroom” Thursday morning.

The efficacy of a vaccine depends, in part, on how good it matches a strains of viruses that indeed finish adult prevalent during a influenza season.

So far, according to a CDC, this year’s North American vaccine matches good with a many accepted form of influenza swelling in a United States, though is reduction good matched to a No. 2 form of virus.

This year’s North American vaccine is done from 3 viruses: dual forms of influenza A pathogen (H3N2 and H1N1) and an influenza B virus.

As of Jan 5, a CDC pronounced Friday, a accepted pathogen in a United States was an influenza A (H3N2) pathogen that matched good with a H3N2 pathogen represented in a vaccine. Of a H3N2 viruses tested during that point, 99.4% matched a form that a vaccine protects against.

The compare for influenza B viruses, a second-most common this season, wasn’t as good. Of a influenza B viruses tested between Oct 1 and Jan 5, 66.7% were a form represented in a vaccine.

The compare for H1N1, most rarer this season, was 100%, a CDC said.

Of a viruses collected and tested in a United States in early January, 20.2% were influenza B and a rest were influenza A — a immeasurable infancy of that seemed to be of a H3 variety, according to a CDC.

The vaccine generally works improved “in young, healthy people than it does in comparison persons,” Schaffner said.

The CDC concurs: Even when vaccinated, some comparison people and people with certain ongoing illnesses competence not rise a same high levels of shield as healthy, immature adults, a CDC says on a website.

What to do if we have a flu

But even if it doesn’t forestall illness in a sold person, a vaccine still can lessen some of a symptoms.

“(Flu vaccines) are mostly of advantage since they can forestall some of a complications. It creates a some-more critical infection rather milder,” Schaffner said.

Keep in mind that a vaccine doesn’t work right away. “It takes about dual weeks after vaccination for antibodies to rise in a physique and yield insurance opposite a flu,” a CDC’s website says.

Opinion: In a future, get vaccinated earlier

It’s not too late to get a influenza shot, Schaffner said.

“Influenza is going to be with us into Feb and even beyond. If we haven’t been vaccinated, please, take advantage of a advantages of influenza vaccine,” he said. “Run, do not travel — get a vaccine. Protect yourself and everybody around you.”

National Institutes of Health: It’s an epidemic

If we did get a vaccine though still came down with a flu, we competence consternation if a vaccine caused a illness. It did not, Schaffner said.

“You can get a bit of a bruise arm if we get a injection. If we get a nasal mist variety, we can have a bruise throat for a day and a runny nose. But we can’t get influenza from a influenza vaccine,” he said.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN arch medical correspondent, permitted removing a influenza vaccine and frequently soaking your hands.

“With soap and water, rinse your hands for dual ‘Happy Birthday’ songs,” he suggested in an talk on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360?.”

If we have a flu, how are we treating it? Send photos of your influenza presence kits.

CNN’s Carol Costello and Jason Hanna contributed to this report.


Via: Health Medicine Network