Start preparing for next year’s flu season right now
Spring has returned and a historically bad flu season is on the wane. Yet it’s not too early to prepare for the inevitable surge of the virus in the fall. Here are three ways to get you and your family ready:
Set a reminder on your phone now to get a flu shot in October
“Do your civic duty,” says Dr. Carl Fichtenbaum, an infectious disease specialist at UC Health in Cincinnati, who watches flu closely. You’re not the only person protected by a flu shot. The more people who get vaccinated, the stronger our “herd immunity.” That public-health wall protects everyone, particularly the most susceptible: children, the elderly and those living with chronic disease.
Your body needs a few weeks to incorporate the flu vaccine, so the sooner you get the shot, the more time your body can armor up your immune system against flu. If you forget in October, it’s OK to get the shot later. But the earlier, the better.
Put your mind at ease: A flu shot does not give you the flu
A flu vaccine contains pieces of the virus, not the whole critter, so it’s impossible to get the flu from the shot.
Dr. Clint Koenig, medical director for the Ohio Department of Health, also recommends you ask for the “quad” vaccine. The quadrivalent version protects against four strains of flu. The more common trivalent vaccine covers three strains. The World Health Organization has named the four strains it anticipates to be all the rage next flu season and directed manufacturers to make vaccines to fight those baddies.
Because flu viruses mutate, this year’s vaccines, aimed at the prevailing and especially nasty H3N2 strain, were at best about 35 percent effective. That may not sound like a great number. But any flu shot reduces your risk and, if you do get sick, having the vaccine on board can make your bout less severe.
Koenig puts it this way: “If someone offered you a coupon for 25 percent to 35 percent off, would you use it? Sure.”
Adopt simple health habits now so flu won’t sneak up on you
“It starts with hand-washing,” says Dr. Steven Englender, infectious disease chief at the Cincinnati Health Department.
Wash your hands after using the restroom, before and after preparing food and after touching your nose or mouth. The flu virus is airborne, so tuck your nose and mouth into your elbow to cover a sneeze or cough.
On the more strategic level, Koenig adds: “Adopt a healthy lifestyle. Stop smoking. Be more physically fit. Once we adopt a healthy lifestyle, we’re going into a flu season with the best possible immune system. Take care of yourself.”
“It was a much tougher season than we had seen for about a decade,” Fichtenbaum says. Flu seasons tend to run in cycles, so next year likely will not be as bad. Still, “We have to keep up our guard every season and as many people who can get vaccinated should get vaccinated.”