SO IS THE FLU JAB JUST A WASTE OF TIME?

No, insists the Mail’s Dr MAX PEMBERTON, even though his didn’t stop him getting sick

AT FIRST I wasn’t sure what was happening. I felt achy but shrugged it off as a sign of overdoing it at the gym. A few hours later though, I developed a headache that made me wince it was so painful. For a moment I wondered if it was flu but instantly dismissed the idea: after all, I’d already had my jab, as I do every year.

But that night I woke up drenched in sweat, shivering. I felt awful: there was no doubt, this was flu. Until you’ve had it, it’s hard to describe quite how dreadful it is. Over the years of working in hospitals I’ve seen old people die from it, and as I lay there four weeks ago, floored by flu, I finally understood just how this virus could kill anyone who was elderly, frail or had other health complications. I was uncontrollably hot yet my whole body shook violently. My head pounded — my whole body was in pain — and I poured with sweat. There was no way I could get up.

This went on for about a week and I didn’t feel fully recovered for a further week.

Doctors often say the difference between a cold and flu is that someone with a cold is sitting up watching TV telling you how awful they feel, while someone with flu can’t even raise their head off the pillow.

One of the infuriating things when you’ve had proper flu is people with a heavy cold saying they’ve ‘got a touch of flu’. Little do they know.

This is part of the problem — we tend to lump colds in with the flu and this makes us complacent: the fact is, flu is in another league altogether.

This is why I am such as passionate advocate for the flu jab — I’m always first in the queue come September when they start offering the jab to NHS staff and tell everyone I know to have it. Yes, yes, I had the flu jab this year and got it. So why am I still such a fan?

The flu virus is incredibly clever and easily mutates, meaning that the vaccine is not always effective.

There are also different strains, and the strains tend to change from one year to the next, so predicting which strain will dominate is difficult. As a result, the vaccine can’t protect against every case of flu. Last year, it didn’t work for 50 per cent of people (although there’s some evidence that if you’ve had the jab and still get the flu, the symptoms are less severe).

But half the time the jab does work and having experienced the horrors of flu, I’d do anything to ensure my loved ones and patients avoid it.

And this is an important point — it’s not just you that you’re protecting with the jab, it’s those around you. Every elderly person I have seen die of flu got that virus from someone, most likely a family member. What an awful thought.

It’s not just the elderly: flu can be devastating in the very young, too: about half of severe cases of flu in babies are caught from older siblings, and it can kill them.

The tragedy is that this is so easily preventable if young children get the vaccine when they’re offered it.

For me there’s no debate: the flu vaccine saves lives and it’s all our duty to get it.