5 Things You Probably Do Not Know About Influenza
You’ve heard and read about influenza, commonly called the flu — the virus people are talking about just before winter, during winter, and sometimes up to early spring. Now, it’s all over the news. Over the past weeks, news of Americans of all ages dying from flu made headlines. The family of 12-year-old Dylan, who died from the flu in Florida, said they were stunned by how fast the virus took his life.
Each year, millions of Americans get the flu, a contagious viral infection that invades the respiratory system, including the nose, throat, and lungs. And the flu is nasty stuff. Each year, over 200,000 Americans get so sick they have to be hospitalized, and in a bad flu season, over 50,000 die from flu-related illnesses. Influenza costs the US economy more than $10 billion in medical expenses and another $16 billion in lost earnings. Here are important facts you might not know about the flu.
#1 Even if you had the flu this year, you still need the vaccine. There are different strains of flu circulating simultaneously. You can get flu A earlier in the year and can get flu B in winter. Even if you become sick and develop antibodies for a single strain, you are not safe from other strains. This is why you need to get the flu shot every year.
#2 Next to the flu shot, good hand hygiene is the next best line of defense against the flu. Handwashing is dubbed as a “do-it-yourself” vaccine, composed of five simple steps (Wet, Lather, Scrub, Rinse, Dry).
Proper washing of hands is not just running water on your hands. It is the use of soap and water — rubbing hands for at least 20 seconds. Sing (preferably mentally just hum) the ‘Happy Birthday’ song twice while rubbing to keep track of the time. Handwashing can reduce the spread of respiratory illness, such as the flu.
#3 Flu is not just dangerous and deadly for the elderly. You have heard flu kills older adults because, as we age, our bodies undergo complex changes that progressively weaken our ability to respond to infections and develop immunity (called immunosenescence). But is this only applicable to older adults? No. Young children, especially those under 6 months old, and pregnant women are at increased risk as well. Giving women the flu vaccine during pregnancy may protect young infants against acute respiratory infections from bacterial causes. The CDC, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend all women who are pregnant during flu season get a flu shot, regardless of their trimester.
#4 If you have the flu, you do not have to sneeze or cough — a single breath can harbor thousands of influenza droplets and infect others. According to the CDC, the flu spreads in droplets when people cough, sneeze, or talk, and they travel for a distance of about 6 feet.
Droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people nearby or land on the surface of an object that another person may touch before he or she touches his or her own mouth or nose. However, a new study suggests people infected with flu can contaminate the air around them just by breathing, without coughing or sneezing. Dr. Donald Milton of the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health has a “Gesundheit II” machine that collects and analyzes particles from people’s sneeze, cough, and breath. This study emphasizes the importance of staying home when sick.
#5 Good mood may improve the effectiveness of flu vaccines. A study by a team of investigators at the University of Nottingham has found a link between being in a positive mood on the day of your flu vaccine and the vaccine’s protective effect. The results showed, of all the factors measured; only positive mood, whether measured repeatedly over a six-week period around vaccination or on the day of vaccination, was associated with higher blood levels of antibodies to H1N1.
