Smart Choices
Luke Pamer with Tom Miller, RPh
Flu Vaccines Explained
Flu season is right around the corner and it’s time to be safer than sorry.
There is no better way to protect yourself and your loved ones from getting
sick than a flu vaccination. According
to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the “flu shot” is an inactivated vaccine (containing a killed virus) that is given with a needle, usually
in the arm. The flu shot is approved for
use in people older than six months,
including healthy people and people
with chronic medical conditions.
There is also another type of vaccination that does not have to be done
with a needle. The nasal-spray flu vaccine is a vaccine made with a live weakened flu virus that is given as a nasal
spray. The nasal spray is approved for
people ranging from two years-old to
forty-nine years old as long as they are
not pregnant.
Seasonal flu vaccines protect
against the three respiratory influenza
viruses that research indicates will be
most common during the upcoming flu
season. The viruses in the vaccine can
change each year based on international surveillance and scientists’ estimations about which types and strains of
viruses will circulate in a given year.
You may be wondering when you
should get vaccinated? The answer
according to the Centers for Disease
Control and prevention is, as soon as it
becomes available in your community.
If you can’t get vaccinated right away,
the second best option is to
get vaccinated before
December. It is best
Sponsored by
260-593-2252 • 101 N Main. St. • Topeka, IN
because the timing ensures that protective antibodies are in place before
flu activity is usually at its highest.
Another question you may have is,
who should be getting vaccinated? The
answer according to vaccine experts
(the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) is everyone six
months and older, every year. However,
there are certain groups that need
vaccinated more than others, such
as: pregnant women; children under
the age of five, but especially children
younger than two years-old; people
fifty years of age and older; people of
any age with certain chronic medical
conditions; people who live in nursing
homes and other long-term care facilities; and people who live with or care
for those with high risk complications.
Everyone has heard or seen someone who has had the flu, but it often
gets confused for many other illnesses.
Symptoms of the flu include: a high
fever (101° F to 102° F) that starts
suddenly. Chills, coughing, headaches,
runny nose, sore throat, muscle aches,
and joint pains are also more clues.
There is a common myth behind
getting a flu shot. Many think that
the vaccination will cause an infection
and a person will become sick. That is
wrong. All flu shots have one thing in
common and that is that they do not
cause infection. The flu shot, in simple
terms, tricks the body into making
antibodies that fight the virus without making you sick. Vaccines work
because they do not actually cause illness, they trigger the immune systems
response. After a person receives a flu
vaccination their immune system has
already created the antibodies to fight
off the virus.
Where can you get a flu shot you
may be wondering? You can get a flu
vaccination at your physicians office or
at your local pharmacy.
350 S. Van Buren, Suite 2B
Shipshewana, IN 46565
(in the Next Door Building)
Office Hours:
Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri.
9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
CLOSED:
Sun., Wed., Sat.
The Hometown Treasure · Nov.. ‘11 · pg 49